From the “Your Lawyer Sucks” Series - The Disappearing Lawyer
Estimated Read Time: 4-5 Minutes
Reviewed by Attorney Nate Gjesdal
May 9, 2024
Open a new browser tab, and ask your favorite search engine, “What is the biggest complaint about lawyers?” Ask a friend or family member who had a bad experience with a lawyer. The answer is - The biggest complaint is that some lawyers just disappear. What I mean is that a person may hire a lawyer, only to find that lawyer nearly impossible to reach. Voicemails, texts, and emails go unanswered. Clients are left in the dark. Clients have a court date come and go, hoping their lawyer showed up for it, and not knowing what happened. In a case where a client’s freedom could be at stake, this can understandably create a lot of frustration and anxiety.
Imagine the scenario - You’re charged with a crime, potentially facing jail time or loss of your driver’s license, or your job. You’ve never been through this process before, and you have no idea how it works. You don’t know how long the process takes, or what might happen at each court date. You hire a lawyer to not only fight for you, but to guide you through this process. Now imagine you know that a court date is tomorrow, and your lawyer is supposed to appear on your behalf. Tomorrow comes and goes. No text, no email, no call. What happened in court? That uncertainty keeps people awake at night, and it can be caused in part by a disappearing lawyer.
Why does this happen? The disappearing lawyer probably doesn’t hate his or her clients. Lawyers get busy, lawyers get overworked, lawyers can be poorly organized. Just like everybody else. The problem is that the disappearing lawyer doesn’t have systems in place to remind him/herself to complete seemingly simple tasks, like replying to a voicemail, answering a text once the court day is over, or shooting a quick email back to a client. Everyone has seen the nightmare email inbox - maybe it belongs to you, maybe it belongs to a coworker or family member. Hundreds of emails, unread, junk mail everywhere, 200 unread text messages on the phone. Sometimes, lawyers end up with this mess too, and don’t have systems in place to avoid being in that situation.
At Not Guilty Law, we’ve done criminal defense work for a very long time. I’ve had hundreds of clients tell me stories of lawyers they’ve worked with in the past - and when the story is a negative one, most of the time it has to do with disappearing on the client. I’ve heard how it makes people feel, especially in a situation where freedom and livelihood could be at stake. Having reminders, spreadsheets, calendars that get updated daily, and a promise to clients that requests for communication will be answered within a reasonable period of time are essential to providing a positive experience for clients.
On this topic, some lawyers disappear because they aren’t really your lawyer. When a client retains a big law firm, especially a big law firm that offers low prices - the client hired the firm. That firm may have lots of lawyers, merely doing contract work for the firm, so every court date the client’s case is handled by a different attorney who is not intimately familiar with the facts or the client. Some of these firms don’t even give clients an assigned attorney, or a cell phone number for the attorney. This means a client will call an office line, leave a message with a secretary or paralegal, and hopefully get a callback.
I am surprised by how often this happens, and how common this complaint is. Hire a lawyer, not a law firm name off a billboard. Hire a lawyer who can consistently deliver prompt client communication. Hire a lawyer who knows your name, knows your case, and knows what you value most. Hire a lawyer who is going to show up for you at every court date. Hire Not Guilty Law, because I make a promise to every client that we will never disappear on you.
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