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[00:00:07] Scott Benton: Hey everyone, Scott Benton here. How are you? I’m 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 remind you that the practice of law is easy and fun and today we’re going to answer the question of what if we can’t give the client what they want.
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[00:01:15] Scott Benton: Now, why would a client hire your firm in the first place and engage your legal services for something that you can’t deliver? Well, the answer is they wouldn’t. However, sometimes you simply don’t have enough information about the case at first to make that kind of determination, or maybe during the initial consultation the understanding was that this was one kind of a case that your firm could handle, but then later on when you dug deeper into the details or maybe there’s some new piece of information that comes in, it changes the nature of the case entirely, and you come to realize that What the client’s asking you for is not something that you’re going to be able to provide.
[00:01:53] Scott Benton: Now, as an aside and in an example like this one, you can see why it’s so critical not [00:02:00] only to build instant rapport with your client, but also why you want to dig three layers down into their case details. Now, on this podcast, we talk a lot about building relationships with your clients and digging three layers down.
[00:02:14] Scott Benton: Those are subjects that do get covered in detail in other episodes and in many episodes. So, when you’ve reached a place where you’ve determined that you’re not going to be able to achieve the legal goals the client wants you to pursue, it probably means you need to get out of the case altogether.
[00:02:32] Scott Benton: Although there is one caveat that we’re going to discuss shortly, but for the most part right now, let’s assume that you need to get out of the case. So if you’ve made the determination that you can’t fulfill the client’s goals, then you need to stop working on the case entirely, you need to send a disengagement letter, and you need to formally end that relationship.
[00:02:51] Scott Benton: Now, at that point, you simply want to tell the client that you’re very sorry, but unfortunately you lack the ability to get that particular result [00:03:00] for them.
[00:03:00] Scott Benton: Now, in terms of positioning your reasoning, you largely want to take full responsibility yourself. for not moving their case forward as their attorney and simply say the problem is with you and not with the client. Again, you want to say that you lack the ability to get the result that they’re requesting.
[00:03:19] Scott Benton: That’s as far as the decision needs to go. However, on the flip side, and if it’s applicable, There’s another step that you can consider before telling the client that you lack the ability to achieve their objectives. You can go back, you can review the case facts and any background information that you have, and you can see if there are other directions the case potentially could go, assuming that you find legal theory that would support those directions.
So if you do find any alternative pursuits, you can talk to the client, you can let them know about whatever alternative direction that you’ve come up with. that you can pursue and you can see if that would be an appropriate direction for them to [00:04:00] go.
[00:04:00] Scott Benton: If they say yes and they agree with you, that’s a good direction. You would then be able to move forward with their case. But keep in mind, the decision for the direction of a case is always in the hands of the client. You are serving them as their legal counsel. You’re not making those decisions. The client is the one who has the legal objectives and they’re hiring an attorney, or you, to help them navigate the often complex legal landscape, and they’re hiring you for advice for them to make the best decisions possible for themselves.
[00:04:32] Scott Benton: So if you’ve built the relationship with the client up to the point where they have faith and trust in your extensive educational background, as well as in your legal expertise and your specialized area of focus, they’re most likely going to want to continue working with you until they’ve reached As in this fictionalized example, the now revised goals that you’ve helped them decide upon by providing hopefully highly accurate pros and cons for each [00:05:00] direction.
[00:05:00] Scott Benton: Now, at this stage in the process, when working with a client. That’s your goal. You’re working to understand their objectives, and by that I mean their real objectives, and you do that by digging deeply into their story, and then you’re going to be able to decide if this is a case that you can accomplish their legal goals for.
[00:05:19] Scott Benton: And if so, you’re going to put together a list of their options that you’re going to be putting in writing so that you can send it to them for consideration and for documentation.
[00:05:28] Scott Benton: Now, later on, there might be a call, or maybe a series of calls, where you’re going to go through all of those choices, and you’re going to go through all the pros and cons of each of those options, and then they’re going to have to decide which direction to take.
[00:05:42] Scott Benton: Now, one of those directions, of course, is that they don’t take any direction at all, and they no longer pursue the matter, which potentially is a good use of legal services. Maybe they see the only way to get their objectives met is going to be through a long, drawn out, and very [00:06:00] costly trial that has a low probability for success.
[00:06:04] Scott Benton: So, after they do a little bit of deep thought and soul searching, they decide that it’s just not worth pursuing. And that’s one of the choices that they certainly can make. But ultimately, whether to move forward with the case or not, it’s the client’s choice. You’re being hired to advise them and help them arrive at their own conclusion on what they would like to do. So if you have a case with a client that you determine you won’t be able to achieve their legal objectives on, you have a couple of options here.
[00:06:33] Scott Benton: You can tell them you lack the ability to get the result that they’re looking for and simply get out of the case and send a disengagement letter. Otherwise, you can take another look at the case and see if there are any alternatives that they might want to consider instead. And if so, you want to write those up and present those to your client so they can make a decision on whether or not to continue to move forward with the case.
[00:06:57] Scott Benton: So I hope that helps answer the question of what you can do in the [00:07:00] event that you are not able to help your client get what they want. My name is Scott Benton. I’m the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast. Thank you so much for tuning into this episode.
[00:07:09] Scott Benton: Now, if this is information that you’re finding useful and you’d like to receive an alert every time 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 to courtroom dot com. You can leave us your contact information We’ll send out an alert whenever we post a new episode.
[00:07:26] Scott Benton: And if this is helpful information to you, you can always share, like, and subscribe. That’s also going to help you stay on top of any 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.
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