Client Relations
If We Can’t Beat Them, Let’s Compete With Them!
I’m never more mortified than when I see lawyers trying to shut down legal document preparation services like We the People which purportedly compete with lawyers – as the Illinois Bar is doing. See Lawyers Protest Expanding Legal Document Preparers, Chicago Sun times (2/21/05). I can’t understand why attorneys, who offer a valuable service, feel…
Read MoreLack of A Retainer Can Cost Lawyers’ Their Fee
Next time you find yourself thinking about letting the retainer agreement requirement slide (“I trust the client,” or “There’s no time,” are some excuses that might run through your mind), think again. Lack of a retainer agreement one can cost you your entire fee. That’s what happened in the case desribed in this New York…
Read MoreHow Much Can You Rely on What Your Client Tells You?
Even if you don’t practice criminal law, you should be interested in the U.S. Supreme Court’s eventual ruling in Rompilla v. Beard concerning ineffective assistance of counsel which was argued before the Court yesterday. (for details, see Justices Debate Lawyer Diligence in Capital Case, Tony Mauro, Washington Legal Times (1/19/05)). As with Florida v. Nixon,…
Read MoreA Client’s Role in Case Strategy
Yesterday’s 8-0 decision by the United States Supreme Court in Florida v. Nixon found that an attorney’s concession of guilt in a capital case does not give rise to a constitutional ineffective assistance of counsel claim even when the client has not expressly consented to the attorney’s strategy. The Court’s decision reversed the lower court…
Read MoreWhat A Client’s Going To Do
Of all of the articles written on how to best deal with clients, I find ones such as this, Learn to Love Your Lawyer , Mark Obbie, Inc.com (December 2004) most valuable. Why’s that? Because Obbie’s article provides how-to advice on what clients should do to manage their attorneys. By reading articles like Obbie’s, we…
Read MoreDO YOU RECOGNIZE AT LEAST ONE OF THESE CLIENT-TYPES
What kind of client is your personal pleasure? Hands on or hands off? A lawyer client? A client in denial about prospects of success? Or of course, the crazy (truly crazy!) client? Those are the five types of client identified solo Kim Fanady’s recent article for Small Firm Business, entitled, Close Encounters of the Client…
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