Idiot Lawyer Has No Time To Read Blogs

Here is a great post from Marianne Richmond at the Resonance Partnership Blog.  She notes that her divorce lawyer is mystified as to why his clients do not express gratitude after he "won" their cases.  When she suggests that he read any one of several blogs on the subject (including this one, thanks Marianne), her lawyer responds that he does not have time to read blogs.  Marianne Richmond’s immediate thoughts I think are right on the money.

My thought of course was: Do you really have time to not read blogs?  And I know I am at one extreme with my the answer to all of life’s mysteries can be found in the blogosphere attitude….but c’mon, you want to know why, despite winning a case, your clients seem dissatisfied? Have a conversation with them…and listen; add some empathy. There you go…good start. You are in the service business….did you serve their needs? You say you "won" the case…did you have a discussion with them to define what "winning" the case was so in the end you could agree that you had won.  Oh, stop billing your clients for your mistakes, especially when it is because you didn’t listen…ok, I may be going too far.

Marianne, you have not gone too far.  Perhaps you have not gone far enough.  A lawyer billing for things which turned out to be mistakes is wrong.  A lawyer who bills for things they were told not to do is wrong. Someday, it will be more than a few of us saying it.