- NON-RESPONSIVE
You should expect your lawyer to respond within 24 to 48 business hours to your inquiries. If you don't get a response, this is a red flag. Some clients have complained to me about not getting a response from their lawyer despite leaving a voicemail, email, or text/call for up to a week or longer.
Ideally, the lawyer should write an email to you saying, "I received your 100 questions. I'm busy, I will respond to you, by the end of next week."
Responsiveness is very important. In my case, for example, my voicemail says say, “if it's urgent and can’t wait, you text me and I'll respond to you within two hours." Let's say I'm in trial and you're struggling, and you need help now I will either call or ask another lawyer to call. I will do whatever it takes to get back to this client in short notice.
- NO CLEAR EXPECTATIONS
Clients have complained that their ex-lawyer didn't get on the same page with the client and filed motions without discussing with the client or just said, “sign here, sign there”.
Clients can be emotionally distressed, and they trust their lawyer wholeheartedly to assist them. When clients like these come to my office, they aren’t aware of what happened in their case. I will ask them what motions were filed, what was the last motion, what was the case all about and they don’t know. To figure it out, I must get the whole case file to read it. Sometimes the case is mismanaged and at a dead-end. It can be tough to take on this type of client and I sometimes refuse to take a client because their case was so mismanaged and difficult to bring back to the status that the client expected.
Expectation is an important piece. Getting aligned with a client’s expectations is to not only meet them, but also to manage the expectations. More on this in point five.
- DELAYED BILLING
What you should expect from your lawyer is to receive an invoice regularly. I personally send my invoices every Monday because it’s easier for clients to remember versus billing monthly. So, when client’s read my invoices, they know, "okay, this week that's true, that's what happened."
That being said, some clients who hired me complained that their last attorney wouldn’t send them invoices for one to three months. It's really hard to know what happened months ago and who likes to receive a bill for $20,000? I don't. I don't know any client who would like to receive a bill like that, even if they are wealthy.
- LACK OF UNDERSTANDING
The lawyer doesn’t understand what the client needs. The biggest complaint I hear from clients is that their ex-lawyer didn't respond to their emotional complaint and just said, "yeah, we'll deal with it." And at the end, the client left the lawyer because they didn’t feel heard. Most people who have family law cases will experience emotional distress. A lawyer does not need to give emotional support but needs to hear the client's underlying need when they're emotional and create a legal strategy.
Instead of saying, "okay, deal with your feelings and go to a therapist." A lawyer can walk a client through the process and find a way to help them in their emotional distress.
- OVER PROMISES
Finally, some lawyers over promise but under deliver. I know in the US I hear this complaint a lot. "I can do this for you, we will win." In Family Law, there is no such thing as winning, everyone loses a little bit because it's not an ideal situation to begin with. Family Law is not a Civil law where someone files a claim, and they win and get the prevailing party's attorney's fees. Even attorney's fees and Family Law are different. Whichever party needs it gets attorney's fees from the side who makes more money. In that way, Family Law is balanced.
So, what do I do? I under promise and over deliver and some clients don't like it! They don't like to hear a realistic promise. Sometimes clients don't hire me because they don't like to hear realistic goals and outcomes. Especially because I lay out the risks for clients and I don't over promise.
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