Hiring An Attorney - Does Courtesy Matter?

The answer to the question posed above is YES!

Many years ago, in my last year of law school, we were required to take a class that provided pointers on how to treat one's clients (and others) as an attorney. The class was taught using role-playing scenarios, with one of those scenarios being the attorney office setting. There was an attorney sitting at a desk, a client in a chair near the desk, and a telephone on the desk. You already know what happened, right?

Well of course, the attorney and client were having a conversation with the client explaining a very important point (important to the client), when the telephone rings. So, what is the attorney to do? Let it ring, and ring, and ring? Just pick up the receiver and start talking? Say, "excuse me for a moment," answer the phone and tell off the secretary to impress the client? None of these approaches (as well as several others) was recommended, and I remembered thinking ... "why are we wasting our time learning something that everyone already knows?

Unfortunately, many attorneys treat their clients and others in a discourteous manner on a regular basis. Even more unfortunate is that many attorneys believe that their time is more valuable than the time of others such that they are discourteous on a regular basis. But, does this matter?

What would your Mama say?

The fifth Scout Law is -- COURTEOUS!

Earlier this week I had a meeting scheduled with an attorney in downtown Salt Lake City, spent an hour or so preparing for the meeting, drove 15 miles for the meeting, arrived on time for the meeting, waited 15-20 minutes before calling the attorney's office when he did not show up, was advised by the receptionist that the attorney was cancelling the meeting, drove through rush hour traffic back to South Jordan, and the attorney called one and half hours later to leave a voice message about how busy his day had been and to apologize. From his voice message explanation it was obvious that it did not occur to this attorney to call me before the meeting time or even at the meeting time to say that he would like to reschedule.

Though this particular attorney has 40 years of criminal defense experience, the two clients in need of an attorney's services were ultimately referred to another attorney for representation. Does courtesy matter? See the first sentence of this post for the obvious answer.

Bottom line, a competent and professional attorney always treats his/her clients and others with courtesy and respect at all times. Do not settle for anything less when hiring an attorney to represent you or one you care about.

Eagle4Justice