While my brusque demeanor may hide it, I am aware that family law is a service industry and I work for the clients who retain me. However, unlike most service industries, law, especially family law, is a collaborative process where the customer/client must do work before the attorney can do work. There are many tasks a family law attorney cannot even begin doing until the client performs certain tasks. And there is some work that is time sensitive. Missing deadlines can have serious consequences. Being unprepared for court hearings can have devastating consequences.
Thus a client who ghosts his or her attorney is engaging in behavior that should worry any good and diligent family law attorney. That a client is ignoring his or her attorney and the case does not stop the case from proceeding or deadlines from being missed. I believe a reputation for preparedness helps me have credibility with my fellow attorneys and with family court judges. Clients who hinder that reputation by ghosting me hinder all my future clients. I won’t abide that behavior.
Most good attorneys have multiple clients. Dedicating my limited time and attention to getting particular clients to pay attention is exhausting. I rarely bill my full time for reviewing a file and leaving multiple messages or sending multiple emails to get the client’s attention. My preference is to focus on the cooperative clients’ cases.
Further, experience show that a client who ghosts his or her attorney often emerges in crisis—typically a crisis that only exists because the client ignored the situation until the matter became urgent. When a client is in crisis I have two options: 1) clear all my other work to focus on that crisis; 2) tell the client that the crisis will need to wait until I can provide proper attention. The first option is exhausting and means my other clients suffer. The second option means the client suffers. Thus, my goal is to avoid client crises. Some crises cannot be avoided but a client who presents numerous or avoidable crises is a client I prefer to stop working for.
Ghost me and I won’t want to work for you for long. Neither will any other attorney who respects him or herself.
One thought on If you ghost your family law attorney don’t be surprised if good attorneys won’t work for you
Very well stated & so correct!!