It has been a trying couple of weeks, so… Part 1 in a possibly continuing series.
Dear Public,
You may well consider your legal advisor to be an overly cautious, time-wasting, money grabbing and frequently uncontactable painful necessity. Or, should you be searching for someone to take on your case, you may well consider solicitors to be blind to the merits of your case and cowards who refuse to champion your cause or give you the simplest advice when you call.
No stereotype is without a kernel of truth. So, in a spirit of rapprochement, I want to suggest some ways to get the best from your legal advisor and ways to get an advisor to take on your matter. Here are handy hints for anybody in or contemplating civil litigation.
When your case is taken on, don’t:
- not tell your advisor about things that don’t help your situation. These things will come out, usually at the worst possible time.
- fail to respond to your advisor’s letters and calls, then demand that they respond instantly to a complicated problem that you have omitted to tell them about. It is even better if you don’t move and fail to tell your advisor, then get annoyed when they don’t write to you.
- turn up without an appointment then become outraged when the advisor is unable to see you that very moment, because your car is on a meter, after all. Your advisor is likely to be busy, it goes with the money-grabbing.
- expect that, having given your advisor some information that could be important to the case, you can not only just refuse to discuss it further but insist that your advisor puts something completely different in statements. They won’t. Even if you demand they do. And tell them it is their job to do what you tell them.
- expect a claim or case to be finished overnight, or even in a few months. The whole process can be slow and it might not be your advisor’s fault all the time.
- expect a bloody miracle, or believe that ‘I don’t want to be evicted/be subject to an injunction/pay that money’ is actually a defence in itself.
When looking for someone to take on your case, don’t:
- call at 5.29 pm and expect undivided attention for 30 mins.
- call on the morning that you are due at Court to get representation.
- evade or avoid questions about your problem. Sounding like you are hiding something vital is not good.
- call expecting free advice at that moment. Not only do legal advisors expect to get paid (by somebody - you, legal aid, the other side, but somebody), but they are not going to give advice without having a very clear idea of what the situation actually is. Otherwise there is a good chance the advice would be badly wrong. Not good for you, or for them when you sue.
- want to take to court the people who watch your home from behind trees and wheelie bins all day, so that they can move things around in your kitchen when you are out. You have my sympathies, but without the evidence, the case really isn’t going to have a chance of success, even with the Human Rights Act, really it isn’t.
- call expecting free advice at that moment or at all (again. It bears repeating.)
- demand an immediate statement of how much a matter will cost when the person taking your call has already explained, politely, that they do not know what would be involved in the matter and that if a solicitor is able to take on your matter, they would first be able to advise you on estimated costs. You still won’t get an answer if you then say that it is clearly all about the money on our part, you don’t trust us at all and insist on the cost now. The person taking the call still can’t tell you, particularly if you won’t give any details.
I hope these hints help you in your present or future as claimant or defendant. It’s all about managing the relationship with your advisor. They respond well to clarity, information, politeness, consideration and not being lied to excessively.
Yours faithfully
Nearly Legal
