What You Should Expect From a Lawyer
If you're dissatisfied with your lawyer, this article will help you determine whether your complaints are reasonable.
Most problems that people have with their lawyers fall into four categories: communication problems, competence problems, ethical problems, and fee problems. It's rare, however, that clients have just one problem -- usually, problems spill over into two or more categories.
Here are some basic rules on what you have a right to expect from your lawyer in each of these areas.
Communication problems can cause you to think you have a bad lawyer when you don't, or that your lawyer is doing a bad job when she isn't.
Your lawyer should give you a basic description of your legal matter and let you know what problems to expect, how they'll be handled, and when things will happen. And of course, your lawyer should promptly return phone calls and answer your questions -- basic courtesies that many lawyers commonly ignore because they are so busy.
It's a big shock to most people that there is no guarantee of competence when you hire a lawyer. Sure, all lawyers have passed a bar exam, but one test, given at the very beginning of a lawyer's career, isn't all that significant. And if you complain to a bar association that your lawyer is incompetent, all you are likely to get in return is a shrug. Bar associations go after lawyers who steal or violate specific ethical rules -- not lawyers who just aren't very good.
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