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[00:00:07] Scott Benton: Hey everyone, Scott Benton here. How are you? I am the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast, where we help you easily transition from a law school student into your professional career as an attorney, post bar, when you have your license, and everything, and where we make the practice of law easy and fun.
[00:00:23] Scott Benton: Now today we’re going to answer the question of, does a client always tell you what they want? Does a client always tell you what they want?
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[00:01:19] Scott Benton: When you start working with a client, there’s this assumption that they’re going to come in, they’re going to sit down with you and have a conversation, they’re going to lay out their entire situation And they’re simply going to tell you exactly what it is they want.
[00:01:32] Scott Benton: Now, sometimes that’s true. Maybe even a lot of the times that’s true. But is it always true? Of course, the answer would have to be no, that’s not always what happens when you talk to a client. Let’s be clear that clients don’t always tell you what they want, really for a variety of reasons, and that’s why when working with a client, you want to keep the idea in mind that what you’re hearing on face value might have some other components to it that are just left out [00:02:00] of the narrative.
[00:02:01] Scott Benton: Either on purpose or by accident or because the client simply just doesn’t know at that point in time. So let’s look at a couple of the reasons why a client would not always tell you what it is they want. Let’s go through a short list and let’s get the most deliberate and purposeful reason out of the way. Off the top, which would be that your client is not really operating out of a sense of justice. And by justice, I mean in the sense of the broader definition, which is a set of values upheld by the community or society that has its principle of legal standards.
[00:02:38] Scott Benton: This particular client Instead, they might have their own values that don’t necessarily conform or might not necessarily fall within the accepted parameters of what’s accepted in society and what society considers as justice or even ethical. The client may simply feel conflicted about their value and they [00:03:00] might be somewhat, I don’t know, embarrassed or maybe they have a sense of shame that they don’t want seen.
[00:03:06] Scott Benton: So in working around these more emotional or psychological barriers, they won’t necessarily come right out and tell you what they want because they might fear that it makes them look bad. So they might be possibly waiting for you as their attorney to advise them on what their options are, what directions they can go, and then from those they’re going to pick the option that allows them to achieve their goals.
[00:03:32] Scott Benton: That they’re not necessarily stating. Now in the next example, a client might come in and simply not know what they want. This is something they wouldn’t need to necessarily hide from you. And they’d probably just tell you up front that they don’t know what outcome they’re looking for. It’s possible that they could themselves be in a highly charged mindset that causes them to More or less shut down and it keeps them from thinking clearly whenever someone’s under a high [00:04:00] stress situation That’s what tends to happen Or maybe they’re just simply looking for answers on whatever the law says that are their options They want to talk through their problem with you as their attorney They want to make an appropriate plan from that discussion on how to move forward with their legal objectives.
[00:04:18] Scott Benton: Now another similar reason people aren’t going to tell you what they want is because you It might be the first time they’ve hired a law firm and they have little understanding of how the legal system works.
[00:04:29] Scott Benton: Now they might know something has gone wrong in their life, or maybe something’s been taken away from them that they now want to recover. But stepping into the world of law firms and attorneys, it’s just something people might put off for a while because of fear, or maybe they just, they think that it’s going to cost a lot of money, or they’re worried about Maybe damaging their family relationships.
[00:04:50] Scott Benton: So until they’re absolutely in a place where they must talk to an attorney, they might only contact somebody after the pressure that they’re under [00:05:00] becomes significant enough. Now, if you’ve been listening to this podcast for any length of time, you probably know what I’m going to say about the primary antidote for clients who simply aren’t telling you what they want, and that may be for reasons of embarrassment or shame, which is to focus on building that relationship with them.
[00:05:16] Scott Benton: As with any of the work you do with clients, and it’s something that we say at the law firm that I work for, it’s build relationships and all else will follow. When you’ve got a strong relationship established, then a strong foundation of trust is formed, then the embarrassment and the shame, if they happen to have those feelings, they’re more likely to tell you exactly what they’re looking for in spite of those feelings.
[00:05:40] Scott Benton: And that’s the golden moment where your to do list is going to suddenly fill up. And that’s when you can begin to perform all those legal services and begin to engage here in what we talk about a lot, which is the success cycle. And the success cycle, of course, is going to be your key, even your secret weapon, to efficiently [00:06:00] practicing law, especially when you start your first job as an attorney.
[00:06:04] Scott Benton: For all of your clients, however, whether they know what they want or not, it’s up to you to present them with their options. Once you have enough information about the situation they’ve come to you for help with. If they don’t know where they want to take their legal objectives, then the options you provide for them, along with a discussion on the pros and cons for each one of those options, they can then decide on the best course of action.
[00:06:27] Scott Benton: So I hope that’s helpful and I hope that demonstrates that clients coming in to meet with you will not always necessarily know exactly what it is they want, but you’re going to be the one to help them sort through all of their options for them to finally make a decision on what direction they want their case to go.
[00:06:45] Scott Benton: I’m Scott Benton. I’m the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast. Thank you so much for listening to this episode.
[00:06:50] Scott Benton: If you like this podcast and you’d like to get notified whenever we post a new episode, you can go to our website. Our website is classroom 2 courtroom. com. That’s classroom. The number two courtroom. com. [00:07:00] You can leave us your contact information. We will send you an alert whenever we post a new episode, you can also like, share, and subscribe that way.
[00:07:06] Scott Benton: That’ll help you stay on top of all of our newest episodes. And until next time, we hope you’ll join us in making the world a better place, one client at a time. Thank you so much.
