Lawsense

Here is my friend S’s good lawyer/bad lawyer experience — there are some good lessons to learn from it.

S met with Bad Lawyer about her possible sexual harassment case. It turns out that Bad Lawyer told his friend, a bar owner, about S’s case. When S went to that particular bar, she was humiliated to find out that the owner knew all the intimate details of her case. But it gets worse — S hadn’t hired Bad Lawyer, she had just gone to him for a consultation. When she called Bad Lawyer to complain about Bad Lawyer’s big mouth, she ended up getting yelled at for not paying the bill for the consultation.

The good lawyer in this story is S’s bankruptcy attorney.  When Good Lawyer heard about what had happened to S, he immediately called Bad Lawyer and yelled at him for giving out S’s confidential information. Good Lawyer also gave S some practical advice, which is something attorneys can really stink at — giving good, practical advice. He told S that she could complain about Bad Lawyer because lawyers are so not supposed to talk about a client’s business to other people, but making a complaint like that is hard to prove and would probably turn into a huge hassle. Good Lawyer said that the easiest thing that S could do to deal with the situation was to put Bad Lawyer’s bill in her bankruptcy petition, which means she won’t have to pay it.

There are some morals to this story. Both these lawyers were recommended to S by her friends. Finding a lawyer by asking your friends if they know anyone is one method I highly recommend. But you need more than just a name, you need to know why your friends are recommending a particular lawyer.

One of S’s friends recommended Good Lawyer because the friend had hired Good Lawyer for his own case. Good Lawyer remembered (or at least pretended to remember) S’s friend. So double points for Good Lawyer — he was recommended by a satisfied client and he was invested enough in his former clients to remember them.

Another friend of S’s recommended Bad Lawyer, because Bad Lawyer was “a buddy” of his. Also, S’s friend promised S that she wouldn’t have to worry about paying the consultation fee, because Bad Lawyer was “a buddy of mine.” So two lessons here.  One lesson is, if you’re asking for a recommendation, make sure that your recommender has a legit reason for their recommendation. The second lesson is, if you’re having a consultation with a lawyer, make sure that you ask the lawyer whether the consultation is free before the consultation starts.