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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 and where we make the practice of law fun, more importantly. Now today we’re going to look at focusing on the value of a case, focusing on the value of a case.
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[00:01:15] Scott Benton: And when a client comes in for an initial consultation and they’re evaluating whether to hire your firm or not, they’re going to tell you their story. They’re going to lay out. Some of the case facts for the legal goals that they’re trying to accomplish and you’re going to have a rough estimate of the overall value of their case, which is going to be one of the most important pieces of information that you can have.
[00:01:38] Scott Benton: Now for you as the attorney, it helps determine if this is a case worth pursuing or not. Sometimes cases they have little to no value, which in general doesn’t really help the client to gain anything. And for the firm, it could potentially mean that it becomes difficult for the firm to So you want to [00:02:00] always keep in mind that a law firm, just like any other company, is in business to turn a profit, to make a profit.
[00:02:07] Scott Benton: That’s what they are doing. So if there’s little to nothing available in the case for the client or for the firm, it may not be worth it. pursuing That’s one possibility. Now, if they end up hiring your firm and they become your client, you’re then going to do additional, more detailed research so that you have a better idea of the actual and true value of that case because that range might be a little higher or a little lower than what the client initially came in with.
[00:02:35] Scott Benton: You’re just going to have a follow up conversation. To figure out if there are any other nuances to the case or pieces that were missing during the initial consultation or maybe the meetings once they’ve hired you and you want to assume that the case is moving forward and that the value and all the Benefits that it entails, because it could, it’s not just the value of a property or something.
[00:02:57] Scott Benton: There could be many other benefits [00:03:00] that you can assign value to as well. And that all becomes information that you want to keep on the top of your mind, so that you can communicate that total value to your client on an ongoing basis. Now, you want to keep that value fresh in your client’s mind because sometimes a case can go on for weeks or months or occasionally even years and it’s easy to forget the why behind the case.
[00:03:28] Scott Benton: The value of the case is that why and you want to make sure that is never forgotten. If a client is going to pay for those legal services, eventually they’re going to start to see their money going out of their account and nothing coming back in.
[00:03:41] Scott Benton: Cases can sometimes become fairly complex and the court system has a lot to deal with. A process which often can get bogged down and it can drag out longer. Then really anybody would prefer. It’s not like one of those courtroom shows where a case is [00:04:00] presented, it’s argued over and decided upon in less than 15 minutes before they go to commercial breaks.
[00:04:06] Scott Benton: Now I’m sure everyone wishes a court case could be completed as quickly as that, but realistically it’s just not. Now, let’s take a moment and switch our point of view. And let’s look at this process from the client’s perspective. Here, the client wanted to hire an attorney to help them reach their legal objectives.
[00:04:24] Scott Benton: And then, for the next several months, they receive bills for legal services that they pay for, and they only see money leaving their account. So if you’re looking at this, say from an investment point of view, it doesn’t really look like a very good return because usually if you pay something out, there’s a return that you expect to get.
[00:04:46] Scott Benton: But after a few months of paying for legal services, there’s all these expenditures really, and it doesn’t seem like there’s any benefit at all. And unless you’re reminded of it, or unless you’re a client who’s just, [00:05:00] Really intensely focused on the eventual value of your case, chances are you’re going to start to forget.
[00:05:06] Scott Benton: You’re just not going to remember so clearly. You might even start to think that nothing at all is getting done on your case. You’re just making these payments and nothing’s happening. Now, if the client doesn’t have a clear incentive to keep making payments, why wouldn’t they just take their money and put it in an ETF or a bond in the stock market or, maybe just even pick up a few ounces of gold for safe keeping?
[00:05:29] Scott Benton: The point is that it can become easy to forget about the end goal of achieving your legal objectives and why the value of the case, the value becomes an important engine that drives the reason why. This case is being pursued when the value of the case is either lost or forgotten about the case might start to seem as though it’s too expensive or maybe it’s just not worth it or a Failed investment with really no return [00:06:00] and you want to stay away from that Now while a client is likely going to continue to work with you and your firm because by now Hopefully, they know you, they like you, and they trust you, assuming that you’ve mastered those skills that we talk about on this podcast as well when it comes to working with clients.
[00:06:18] Scott Benton: Oftentimes, the value of a case can simply be used to remind the client and anyone else on the legal team of what that potential future reward is going to be once the case is finished. So communicating the value frequently and often is going to help keep the case continually moving forward. Because more than likely, it means the client remembers and considers their payments of money as well spent.
[00:06:45] Scott Benton: And it’s well spent for an eventual reward sometime down the road, which keeps them paying for your legal services. And it also means, by the way, the good news is that your to do list, It’s going to stay fairly full all the time. [00:07:00] And when the ball drops back into your court from the opposing side, because sometimes you’re waiting for things to come back, you’re ready to take the next step towards reaching those legal objectives.
[00:07:10] Scott Benton: And hopefully, you realize the full value of the case. In many ways, when it comes to litigation where cases have a value attached to them, the case value becomes the bookmarks. at each end of the case, since in the beginning of the case, even during the initial consultation, you have that figure as the estimated value.
[00:07:31] Scott Benton: And then all the way through the case, by the time you get to the end of it, Hopefully, you’re going to have that final distribution made to the client. As you might be able to see here, the value of a case is an extremely important number, and it runs all the way through the life of the case. I’m Scott Benton.
[00:07:50] Scott Benton: I’m the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast. Thank you so much for listening to this episode and for tuning in.
[00:07:55] Scott Benton: Now. If you like this podcast and you enjoy the information that we’re providing to you and you’d like to receive [00:08:00] an alert whenever we put out a new episode, you can go to our website. Our website is classroom 2 courtroom dot com. That’s classroom. The number two courtroom dot com. You can leave us your contact information.
[00:08:10] Scott Benton: We’ll send you an alert Every time we put out a new episode, you can also like share and subscribe wherever you’re watching this. And that’s going to help you stay on top of the new episodes as well. And until next time, we hope you’ll join us in making the world a better place one client at a time.
[00:08:27] Scott Benton: Thank you so much.
