What (some) clients are saying about lawyers By John Chisholm Recently I made a presentation to about 30 CPA's who are management accountants in organisations of varying sizes ranging from multinationals to SME's. My topic was entitled "Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Lawyers But It Was Too Expensive To Ask!!!". Yep I guess you might say I was being set up or setting myself up and a fairly broad subject anyway to condense into a one hour presentation. One hour very quickly became two however especially as I opened the presentation by asking them what they REALLY wanted to know about lawyers and to tell me of their EXPERIENCES with lawyers, law firms and the profession generally. Hmmmmm?? Needless to say the room was not filled entirely with warm and fuzzy feelings of love, care and understanding. I did the best I could trying to explain, justify and defend the actions (or inactions) of some of the negative experiences they had with their lawyers but sometimes it is just really, really hard to defend the indefensible. Perhaps this is best illustrated if I relate some of the attendees opening volleys to me on their experiences. For example: Fees. Why do Lawyers charge for EVERYTHING? Why are they so expensive? I am often charged for names of people I have never met? They told me it was going to cost $5000 and it ended up costing the company $48000!He told me he was going to charge $300 per hour but didn't tell me how many hours nor how many people would be working on the matter!. Disbursements-they have the cheek to send me a bill for $15000 PLUS they want me to pay for their own printing, copying, courier and phone calls!!! They told me about their fees-but didn't tell me that the barristers fees would be triple the solicitors fees!!! Etc,etc,etc. Language. Why cant they speak a language I understand? They use all these words that mean nothing to me and then they charge me more to interpret what they have written. What is wrong with Plain English? Communication. They never tell me what is happening - except at the last moment and then I am expected to drop everything and be at a conference with a barrister-or worse still at Court tomorrow morning! Sometimes I wonder whether it is better they don't communicate with me and tell me what is going on for every time they do they charge me for it! Why won't they return phone calls within a reasonable time? Is there something in Lawyers handbooks that say you are never to return phone calls inside a week unless a client is threatening to sue you ,set up an embassy outside your home or is about to be cremated? When my solicitor does return my phone call I don't want to hear how busy he has been on every other clients file-I want to know how busy he has been on my file! Response time is hopeless. I often need an answer quickly, not in 2 weeks time when it is too late! They never COMMIT themselves. They always sit on the fence and want us to make the decision! I am paying them to make decisions! They are always pretty gung ho at the start of litigation but guess what every time we get to door of court and have a meeting with a barrister I am told "because of the uncertainties of litigation it is commercially desirable to settle and not go to hearing"! Pity they didn't advise me of that before I spent $50,000 on legal fees! Sometimes I really get the feeling the solicitor doesn't want us as a client but when I ask him he says "of course we do". Why then does he treat us with such indifference most of the time? He only really shows interest when I threaten to leave or wont pay a bill! Why do I stay with our current solicitors if I am unhappy? I have changed lawyer firms before and there isn't much difference. They are all the same. I am not saying he is incompetent and I like him personally and it such a hassle to have to change and go through a learning curve again with a new solicitor. He probably knows that too so he knows he can get away with it. My law firm state on their website that they "..understand our clients business and the industry they operate in..."That is bullshit! I would love them to come and visit me at my business for a change and see just how hard it is just how tight my margins are and how competitive my industry is!. When I do take time to explain to a lawyer at my company's law firm about our business and our industry next time I find I am dealing with a totally different person who knows nothing about us and clearly has not been briefed by the firm about us. I am so fed up with our company's lawyers that I only ever go to them as a last resort. I know I am doing things that I should really have "legalled" but frankly I am willing to take the risk in most cases just so I don't have to deal with them. It only adds both cost and time to the transaction! Why don't I complain? Who do I complain to? No one has told me who I can go to? Once I asked to speak to the Managing Partner-and I am still waiting for him to return my call! I was asked to put my complaint in writing to "Complaints Committee" .I just didn't have the time to go through all that. All I wanted was action on the file. I once complained to the Law Society but they made me feel like I was on trial. It just wasn't worth it in the end. It still wasn't helping getting my case sorted out. They always look after themselves anyway. I think you get my drift. I certainly got theirs. It wasn't all negative though I am pleased to say. One attendee was impressed by the pro bono work her solicitor did and another really liked the lawyers new cars he purchased every 12 months. One was so impressed by her lawyer she used to invite him and his wife to dinner parties-until the lawyer started hitting on her best friend.!! Now to be fair not all of these people have direct contact with lawyers. Some of them are merely paying the law firms bills, some of them were told to budget for a certain amount by the line manager instructing the law firm only to have the line manager sheepishly appear with an account (now 2 months old) that he has been sitting on which was far in excess of the original budget and then the financial controller has to try and work out how they are going to find the cash to pay for it! Some of them clearly only see the financial ramifications and not necessarily all the good things the lawyer does for the company. But even taking all the above comments with a grain of salt unless I was just so unlucky to pick a group of management accountants that all had a bone to pick with lawyers (have they all been through a divorce?) and whilst clearly the customer is not always right have we not learnt anything over the years about client service? Not one of the attendees was complaining about the lawyers lack of technical skills (they probably wouldn't know anyway whether they were or were not technically good) but about really basic service delivery-lack of common courtesies or bedside manners. To think in the 21st Century we are still getting complaints about the most basic things-like returning phone calls!!! Is business so good, are our profits so high, are our clients so difficult, - always wrong and so demanding that we can continue what to our clients at least seems to be inexcusable arrogant behaviour? I guess we can - especially if all our competitors are much the same ! But what if by some miracle one or two of our competitors (who are no better technically then what we are ) actually starting getting this client service rubbish right? Worse still what if one of our major clients found out about this mythical law firm and decided to give them a go? Anyway back to reality because that will never happen!. I did spend a great deal of time informing the group the ways of finding a lawyer that may suit them; how to properly engage their lawyer so to minimise any "miscommunication issues" ;what a law firm's Terms of Engagement should contain (one attendee commented that they needed to consult another lawyer just to interpret and get advice on their law firms terms of engagement???); clients "rights" against lawyers; how to complain and to whom; how costs are calculated,; how they could "save" some costs,; what solicitor/client confidentiality may mean,; what is a Trust Account really for; conflicts of interest; P.I and Fidelity Insurance; Barristers v Solicitors, - and I directed them to the Law Institute's very informative website. Did I convince them to be more accepting, understanding and more caring to their current lawyers? Yeah maybe -at least until that mythical law firm that focuses on client service from the client's perspective makes an appearance. Hey that's unlikely to happen though -isn't it? Join Simon's mailing list Do drop Simon a line. He'd like to hear from you. Back to Articles Index

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