Protect or (Save) Your Case (Continued)

by Bob Leonard, Jr.

            Last week, I discussed ways that you can help your lawyer to represent you and perhaps save your case from failure.  This is a continuation of that article.

            One of the areas that clients usually hurt their attorney's work on the case has to do with their day-to-day cooperation.  Lawsuits have significant and critical deadlines.  For example, if you are served discovery (questions or requests from the other side) you are generally given 30 days to respond.  Failure to respond properly and fully can have significant effects, even to the point of completely destroying your case.  It is not uncommon, however, for an attorney to send these requests to the client with the attorney's own request that the client provide documents and information, and just a few days before the response is due, the attorney is on the phone with the client begging him to get started in providing the necessary help.  Remember, the attorney can argue your case, but you are sometimes exclusively in charge of all of the evidence and knowledge of the case.  Not responding to your attorney properly would be the same as going to the emergency room at a hospital and refusing to tell the doctors where you hurt.

            Another big mistake that non-lawyers make when involved in lawsuits is not being able to keep their mouths shut.  Anything that you discuss with your lawyer is privileged (with a few exceptions).  Your lawyer cannot be required to reveal it in court.  This gives you the freedom to have open and honest communications with your attorney which is critical to his or her representation of you.  Anything that you discuss with your lawyer that you later discuss with someone else is not covered by the privilege.  If you have a conference in your lawyer's office and then go and discuss it with your mother-in-law, your best friend, or even another lawyer, then you have likely waived the privilege.  That means any of the people involved, including your lawyer, could be forced to testify about this matter in court.  Even though you believe that the people that you are talking to will not tell anyone else, it is a hugely common experience in our office for our conversations with clients to come back to us from other sources.  Clearly, someone is not keeping his or her mouth shut.  If the information comes back to us, we can only assume that it might find its way to the other party who can then use the waiver of the attorney/client privilege to ask our client on the witness stand about conversations that the client otherwise would not be forced to reveal.

            Your attorney should discuss all of the above with you at the start of his representation of you.  If he doesn't, bring these matters up yourself. You need for your attorney to have confidence that you are going to act in such a way that helps him to be successful in the case.  While no attorney likes to lose a case, we all recognize that generally one side or the other does not prevail.  If it does not prevail because the facts are not on our side then that is simply the way that the system worked.  If it does not prevail because our client torpedoed his own case, then that means that the attorney did not do an adequate job of controlling his client.  Keep these thoughts in mind and you should increase the chances that you will prevail in your lawsuit.  If you want us to help you do that , then contact one of the attorneys at the Bob Leonard Law Group at www.bobleonard.com or (817) 336-8500.

Protect (or Save) Your Case

By Bob Leonard, Jr.

            This is another in our blog series describing mistakes that lay people (non-lawyers) make in dealing with legal matters.  We hope that these postings are helpful to you.  If you have any suggestions, comments or criticisms of our blog posting we would welcome your comments at info@bobleonard.com.

            This post deals with people who are represented by attorneys in litigation.  These people frequently make mistakes in dealing with their attorneys.  These mistakes often result in increased expenses and possibly lost or damaged cases.  By being aware of these landmines, perhaps you can better protect yourself and help your attorney to do a better job for you.

            Perhaps the most common mistake that people make is simply to not listen to their lawyer.  You hire your lawyer for a reason.  You are paying him or her a significant fee for a reason.  That reason is that your attorney is trained and experienced in dealing with the matter at hand.  Your lawyer has gone to law school, practiced for some number of years (hopefully in the area of law in which he is dealing), and takes a measurable amount of continuing education every year.  In addition, some attorneys become board certified or specialize in an area so much that they become virtual experts in that area.  Your attorney knows the law, the personalities of the opposing party, and perhaps most importantly, the personalities and particularities of the judge.  All of these are things that you cannot achieve on your own.  When your lawyer recommends a certain course of action, it is usually for a reason.  You should think twice before rejecting that advice.

            On a related note, you should work closely with your lawyer in developing the theme and direction of your case.  For some matters, it is very obvious (to the lawyer) what needs to be done.  For example, in a civil lawsuit or criminal case there might be two to five elements of the case that have to be proved in court.  No matter how much you are offended by something else that the other party has done, it may be totally irrelevant to what you have to do in court and, in fact, could get in the way of your attorney being able to present his case on the elements that he absolutely needs to prove.  One of the biggest advantages that an attorney gives you is that he can be objective (hopefully).  In other words, he will not let your emotions concerning the case affect the way that he proceeds to handle your case.  An attorney who simply does what his client wants him to do and not what his client needs him to do is doing a huge disservice to the client.  In fact, if a client insists on following the client's own inclination instead of that of the attorney, a seasoned attorney would most likely either withdraw from the case or, if he has sufficient fortitude, get into the client's face and insist that the client do what is best.

It you want a lawyer who will take your concerns to heart, but who will also insist that you do what is necessary to increase your chances of prevailing, then contact one of our attorneys at www.bobleonard.com.

To Be Continued next week