When we started our Illinois lawyer referral and legal guidance website in 2001, we promised to be direct, blunt and honest. We feel that is how lawyers should be because clients and potential clients need to know the truth and know that we can help them by being straight with them. Some people love it. I like direct people that get to the point. Not everyone feels that way and some people truthfully don’t like it. That’s OK. We are not for everyone. In fact, we’ve had people choose to not work with us because they didn’t like how to the point we are. That’s also OK.
When talking to a lawyer for the first time, you should be evaluating if that’s someone you feel is the right fit. That includes asking them whatever questions you have about the case, their experience, how they’d approach things etc. You don’t need to become friends with them, but should feel that they are someone you are alright talking with.
A little secret is that lawyers are evaluating you too, especially ones that are experienced and successful. And for many of them, they are using the PITA factor to decide if they want to get involved or not.
What is the PITA factor? It stands for “pain in the ass.” The bigger a PITA you seem to be, the less likely they’ll want to work with you and/or the more likely they will ask you for a lot of money to take the case on.
Take for example a recent caller to my office. He had an agreement with his ex-wife that she’d sign the house over to him in what is a quit claim deed. He’s been paying the mortgage at around $1,100 a month for over a year, but she won’t sign the house over and won’t leave. He wanted to know if he had a case.
I let him know it was a straight forward situation. What the contract says and what their divorce decree says will determine the outcome. The solution, since he’s stopped returning his calls and texts, is to sue her. That forces her to respond and if she doesn’t he gets what he’s looking for. I let him know that the attorneys who handle that type of case would charge him $1,500 up front.
He wanted guarantees he’d win and got a bit aggressive about it. I let him know that nobody honest could give a guarantee because we don’t have all the facts and don’t know her side of the story. She might say there is no contract and he forged her name. She might say that they signed a second document after the one he’s talking about. The divorce decree may have given her the house or ordered them to sell it. Or he could be 100% in the right.
The only way to know for sure is to sue and see how she responds. I get why he wouldn’t want to risk $1500 on attorney fees, but alternatively he’s spending almost that much every month for a house he doesn’t even own or live in.
He kept on being hostile so I ended the call as he was not someone I’d want to work with. Truth be told, lawyers would have more tolerance for someone like this if they were hit by a bus and had a case that could be worth $10 million. But most good attorneys aren’t going to get involved in an hourly fee case with someone who is rude and won’t listen to their advice.
So fair or not, I highly recommend to people that they put on the best impression possible when you first talk to them. You wouldn’t hire a jerk, so don’t act like a jerk. Lawyers are there to help you and while we might not tell you what you want to hear, we will tell you the truth.