August 26, 2024

Five Tips for Happier Clients (And More Productive Cases)

I spend a lot of time here nerding out about interesting cases and the many provocative types of legal conflict that continually arise. Keeping up with trending issues is an important part of what I do, and the latest disputes are more fascinating than ever. 

But there’s another big part of my job that I talk about less that is just as captivating: Working with clients. 

Why do I generally keep mum about this? Obviously, I can’t reveal any privileged client information. Also, litigation can be stressful, clients can sometimes have meltdowns and throw tantrums, and I’m not going to write about people’s bad moments even if they might be instructive for others. Finally, unlike reading and interpreting statutes and cases, working with clients isn’t something I learned in law school. It is a skill gradually acquired over years of practice and continual improvement. As a result, I (and most other lawyers I know) don’t really have an academic framework to organize and disseminate my expertise about working with clients.

But fear not: I’ve got a few things to share. Specifically, emotions, beliefs and behaviors I’ve seen that cause clients (and attorneys) needless stress and can make it harder to produce good results. Recognizing and anticipating these problem areas can help clients and attorneys have much better experiences as they navigate difficult litigation. (Also, it never hurts for me to put my thoughts down so that I can come back to them. Everybody wins!) 

1. The “It’s not fair!” syndrome. I think that a lot of people come to me feeling they’ve been treated in a way that is unfair and they expect “the law” to be on their side, and for lawyers and courts to make things right. In an ideal world that is exactly what would happen but, alas, as should be obvious to anyone over the age of 4, we don’t live in an ideal world. “The law” is made up of people. People with wildly differing beliefs and agendas. People who sometimes just plain get things wrong (that’s why we have appellate courts). Moreover, what’s fair to one person might not be fair to someone else. It’s important people put aside that powerful “it’s not fair!” feeling and focus instead on getting attainable, satisfactory results.

2. “And another thing!” A lot of times people are determined to tell the opposite side in a dispute everything they’ve done wrong. But, in my experience, not every little thing matters. It is better to have one or two really good examples of why you’re right and/or the other side is wrong rather than throw everything but the kitchen sink at them. Doing so cuts down on needless back and forth and keeps the focus on those points that have power to change the situation. Plus, keeping some weapons in your arsenal in case you need them later is always a good idea.

3. “Same thing, same result.” Often, when people come to me, they’ve already spent a lot of time going back and forth with their adversary and discussions have fallen into a predictable pattern. For example, your side keeps asking for information and the other side keeps ignoring these requests. And on and on. If you keep doing the same thing, you’ll probably keep getting the same result. That’s frustrating. If you want something different to happen, clients and attorneys need to be willing to try something different.

4. “I’m not going to tell you.” If you’re a client, err on the side of telling your attorney too much, not too little. I cannot stress this enough. It’s much harder for me to help you solve a problem if I don’t have all the relevant information about the dispute, the opponent, and yourself. Anything can come up in a case, and the more unexpected it is, the more detrimental it can be — and the more stressful for my clients and myself. If I know about it, I can anticipate and plan for it.

5. Finally, it’s important to draw lines (I’m not going to say, “in the sand!”). When you’re making demands of your adversary or laying out expected results, set boundaries and stick with them (of course, always be willing to adjust if you receive new information). If you don’t enforce a boundary, it can be a lot harder to get the other side to believe that this time you really mean it. When a client panics and suddenly wants to cave in on something their attorney doesn’t want to budge on, it causes tension between the two of you and jeopardizes your negotiating power going forward.

In all this, there’s a difference between understanding potential behaviors and eliminating them. But recognizing these patterns is definitely a productive first step toward ensuring a smoother, less stressful process for everyone involved in a litigation.