Different lawyers have different ways for approaching their job of helping their client to win his or her personal injury case. Clients might wonder whether or not a lawyer’s approach affects the client’s chances for winning. Depending on the client’s view of the lawyer’s approach, he or she might think about looking for a new Personal Injury Lawyer in St Thomas.
Reasons that some clients become dissatisfied with their lawyers
• Client unable to contact lawyer, when seeking advice
• Lawyer’s explanation for an apparent lack of progress seems inadequate
• The members of the team (lawyer and client) have a clash of personalities.
• Same members of team do not agree on best way to reach a fair deal.
• Client witnessed inappropriate behavior on the lawyer’s part
• Attorney appears disorganized.
• Lack of transparency on the attorney’s part
Actions that clients can take, after becoming dissatisfied with a lawyer’s performance
Schedule a time to speak with the lawyer that has failed to meet the client’s expectations. Use that conference as a means for trying to arrive at solutions to the problem. Some of the problems listed above can be solved fairly easily.
For instance, if a client has struggled to get in touch with a hired attorney, it could be that the client’s method of choice does not match with the lawyer’s preferred means of communication. In other words, the members of the team need to decide on one method: phone calls, emails or text messages.
When there has been a more difficult problem, such as a clash of personalities, clients need to consider the alternate action. That involves searching a listing of other lawyers. Then it becomes the dissatisfied client’s job to seek a second opinion from another lawyer.
Consequences to anticipate, if you have retained a new lawyer
Some of the first lawyer’s time was devoted to working on your case. Hence, that member of the legal profession has a right to seek payment for that time. Usually, a new attorney pays the former one an amount of money that equals 1/3 of the client’s contingency fee.
If you are changing lawyers, it is your job to let the second one knows about the previous arrangement. Ideally, the new attorney will agree to give the first one 1/3 of your contingency fee. If that does not come to pass, then the two of them will have to use legal means to fight one another.
You will not have to get involved. Still, you should not count on seeking the services of either of the same lawyers in the future. In other words, you will have reduced the size of the pool from which you would be able to select another member of the legal profession.