My Favorite things in a Client
OK, so my favorite 3 things in a client.
First of all, that they’re honest.
I’ve been doing this 35 years and it just doesn’t work out if I’m working with somebody that’s holding something back, or not telling me what really happened. In fact, I can’t even work with them. So, number one is being honest.
Number two would be that they actually need a lawyer. And, really, anyone that’s been injured is a great person for me to talk to. Mainly because I can tell them what to do. Let’s say it’s a very small car wreck and they don’t really need a lawyer. But they call me because they’re trying to be careful. I can usually tell them, “hey, get a sheet of paper out. I’m going to give you 3 or 4 things that you need to do right now to get this, you know, case resolved for you. You don’t need to hire a lawyer.” And I do that all the time.
The third thing is, if someone is seriously injured – let’s say they’ve broken a leg, or they’ve got a bad back injury or neck injury – it’s a serious, serious problem and you might be dealing with that for the rest of your life. So, if I have a client that, I take the case, they need a lawyer and it’s a difficult case, and we’re working together, I really prefer someone that’s going to stay in touch with me and someone that’s available to come in and talk. I want them to be a part of the case. I want them to know everything that’s going on every step of the way, and I want them to be involved in the decision-making process.
It’s fairly basic stuff that we’re doing here, because we’re ultimately going to be in front of a jury of 6 people, and we’re going to ask those 6 people to make a decision. So, things have to be on a level that it’s fairly simple to understand. It’s just storytelling. So, I like a client, again, that’s going to stay involved, that knows what’s happening if I ask them to read a deposition or ask them to read a case. I don’t expect them to know what everything in the case means or understand the legal citations. But I do expect them to read it, because there’s a reason why I want them to look at the case, so that we can talk about it.
So, that’s it. Three perfect things, or, three things that I really like to see in a client.