Did they offer to give you great exposure in return for free legal aid? That's what H always gets when people want him to work for free- think of all the exposure!
I always find it baffling when people suggest that someone find a pro-bono attorney, like all these attorneys are just waiting to take on random cases for free. Sure, try to find someone to take your case pro-bono, do what you have to do, whatever, but when the suggestion is thrown out like it's no big thing to find a pro-bono attorney, I just don't get it.
I would love to go to other people that provide services and do that, can you imagine?
Say Mr. Contractor, my kitchen is a design nightmare. What do you think about making it more usable and pretty for me? Money? No. Just do it out of the kindness of your heart and your innate desire to make the world a better place!
ETA: We have had some issues Mr. Contractor, but we decided without any knowledge or expertise, we would try to fix it ourselves. That didn't work out so much, so now it is a bigger issue for you to fix.
I have had three or four prospective clients come in over the past few days, and each of them had serious legal problems. All of them and I mean all of them, when I outlined fees and costs, said they had no money and were not likely to be getting any soon and could not pay me. As in, ever. But would I still represent them. UH NO.Â
None of them wanted the number for Legal Aid, either. It was like Well, we'll see if she'l work for free.Â
How do you react to them when they tell you they weren't planning on paying you for your services? I'd have a hard time hiding my WTF face.
Did they offer to give you great exposure in return for free legal aid? That's what H always gets when people want him to work for free- think of all the exposure!
Crazy people.
Oh, yes! they'll tell all their friends!
Yes! They'll tell all their friends you worked for free, so then their friends will come to you, too...... expecting you to work for free.
My favorites were always the random cold calls to the firm. People must google "law firm (CITY)" and we're one of the biggest, so we pop up near the top. After they call Reed Smith and K&L, they must move on to us. haha. Then they call our front desk and ramble on. Somehow they get patched through to me.
"Oh hi.. Yes, I have a Ms. SoAndSo on the phone.. she explained her problem and it had to do with property, so I thought I'd transfer to you."
"...Why?"
"Well, you used to do real estate, right?"
"Uh, yes, but I have a feeling this won't be related to real estate."
It wasn't. It was someone who had committed a crime, had their car impounded, and now wanted to sue the city and/or police for any damage they said their interior had. Sorry, nope. I do product liability defense.
Post by Saint Monica on Mar 4, 2015 8:31:24 GMT -5
It is one of the worst parts of private practice.
PDQ: I had a former client want more services for free. I could not assist but called in a favor and got another atty to agree to do it for free. THE FORMER CLIENT REFUSED TO GO IN TO MEET WITH THE GUY WHO WOULD DO IT FOR FREE BECAUSE HE WOULD HAVE TO PAY FOR PARKING. WTF.
OH NOW I REMEMBERED ANOTHER. Part of my pro bono work is doing limited representation at PFA hearings. One and done. One lady got real sassy and started calling me, yelling at my assistant after the fact that I was HER ATTORNEY and I HAD to speak with her about her custody and child support issues. Nope. And you yell at my assistant again, and I will end you.
Post by Saint Monica on Mar 4, 2015 8:40:38 GMT -5
@cse1960 - can you remove the part of my quote I wrote PDQ about?
I still do Sunday meetings but sometimes I cannot meet all requests for days/times and people get really bent out of shape. I also scheduled a Sunday appt recently and the Wife, who I dont represent, called me pissed demanding my registration number. She did not believe a real atty would meet on a Sunday. lol.
OH NOW I REMEMBERED ANOTHER. Part of my pro bono work is doing limited representation at PFA hearings. One and done. One lady got real sassy and started calling me, yelling at my assistant after the fact that I was HER ATTORNEY and I HAD to speak with her about her custody and child support issues. Nope. And you yell at my assistant again, and I will end you.
Oh. So as her assigned pro bono PFA lawyer, you are now her slave, and she can yell at you/yours. How nice for you.
Yes! It took me a while to understand, but she beat it into me
I once had a PFA client call me 20 times in one day. But PFAs are stressful, and I was actually representing her on her PFA, so I wasn't even that mad.
My cousin and uncle share a family law practice and has complained about these requests. I know my cousin finds it draining, I think it happens to him more because he's the young buck of their little firm of three attorneys and people will spin it like they're giving him business and doing him a favor by bringing their case to him.
Did they offer to give you great exposure in return for free legal aid? That's what H always gets when people want him to work for free- think of all the exposure!
Crazy people.
Ha! That's what you want... MORE people coming to you asking you to work for free!!!
My cousin and uncle share a family law practice and has complained about these requests. I know my cousin finds it draining, I think it happens to him more because he's the young buck of their little firm of three attorneys and people will spin it like they're giving him business and doing him a favor by bringing their case to him.
lol IT'S NOT BUSINESS IF THEY'RE NOT PAYING.
Lol my cousin is like, "Taking on free cases actually decreases my time available for generating business. They're doing 'favors' wrong."
Is it common for lawyers to do payment plans? Like pay as you go?
I ask bc my divorce lawyer allowed me to do that. I paid something every month when I got his estimates in the mail so I didn't get a huge bill at the end (and yet still ended up with a semi big bill at the end, but I understood why and was putting $ aside for it)
I also had money but it was a matter of not having that much available all at once for a huge bill. But asking for free services? I don't have the balls to ask. No way.
My atty allows me to sort of pay as I go. She got a pretty substantial retainer fee up front and then, once she spent all that, she bills out monthly for anything else. Thank goodness I had that money set aside (and if I hadn't my parents would have helped) because attorneys are not cheap, and they shouldn't be.
Is it common for lawyers to do payment plans? Like pay as you go?
I ask bc my divorce lawyer allowed me to do that. I paid something every month when I got his estimates in the mail so I didn't get a huge bill at the end (and yet still ended up with a semi big bill at the end, but I understood why and was putting $ aside for it)
I also had money but it was a matter of not having that much available all at once for a huge bill. But asking for free services? I don't have the balls to ask. No way.
Our lawyer let us do payment plans when DH was adopting DD1. We had to pay a retainer - maybe $2500?. Then she let us pay her in $400 increments as needed. As the retainer went down and it was apparent that it would all be used, we started making payments so we never went into the hole. It was very helpful..
Well now I'm nosy and I want to know about his case lol. He was trying to keep his "greedy" ex wife's paws off his boat? I would offer to do her case for free lol.
Well now I'm nosy and I want to know about his case lol. He was trying to keep his "greedy" ex wife's paws off his boat? I would offer to do her case for free lol.
nothing exciting, sad to say. He has a lot of bills, and can't afford a lawyer, he says. OK, dude.
How annoying. That's when you say, "I'm sorry for your situation, but do you work and not get paid?"
When I was a paralegal, we had a client who asked if I could just draft some paperwork for him on a different matter since I'd be cheaper than hiring the attorney for it. Lol. He couldn't understand why I couldn't do it since I was the one drafting most of the documents on his other case anyway. "Well, I'd rather pay the paralegal hourly rate vs the lawyer hourly rate." Lol. Who knew you needed a law degree to practice law?!
This was the same client who would call almost everyday and talk to me or the attorney for a minimum of 30 minutes. Then would call to bitch about the amount of his bill. How dare we charge him for talking on the phone. Uhhh...
A southwest Florida man put his dead neighbor in the bed of his pickup truck and drove to his lawyer's office claiming he'd killed the man in self-defense.
Attorney Robert Harris told the News-Press of Fort Myers that 52-year-old John Marshall showed up around 4 p.m. Wednesday, saying he didn't know who else to trust.