{"id":7520,"date":"2012-03-19T13:37:35","date_gmt":"2012-03-19T17:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=7520"},"modified":"2012-07-13T14:34:32","modified_gmt":"2012-07-13T18:34:32","slug":"what-can-you-do-when-your-lawyer-ignores-you-a-lot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=7520","title":{"rendered":"What can you do when your lawyer ignores you? A lot."},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\"><span style=\"color: #333399;\">Rabelais had satirized the mountain of documents that piled up around every case: his character Judge Bridlegoose spent hours reading and pondering before making his final decisions by tossing dice, a method he found as reliable as any other. Many authors also attacked the widespread corruption among lawyers. In general, justice was recognized as being so unjust that, as Montaigne complained, ordinary people avoided it rather than seeking it out. \u2013 Sarah Bakewell, <em>How to Live \u2013\u00a0 Or \u2013 A Life of Montaigne<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve given you a nine part personal narrative under the title, &#8220;What can you do when your lawyer ignores you?&#8221; In it, I&#8217;ve related what I&#8217;ve been doing as I face inadequate communication from my personal injury lawyers: I&#8217;ve written e-mails, letters and posts here on <strong>Sidebar<\/strong>. (The posts seem to have been the most effective prod, i.e, they irritated my lawyers who <em>did<\/em> communicate with me\u00a0\u2014 they communicated their irritation that I&#8217;d been critical of them on &#8220;the internet.&#8221;)<\/p>\n<p>In short, I have complained.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve been holding something back, though. There <em>is<\/em> action we can take when our lawyers do not respond, or behave in ways we find contemptuous of us, or unsatisfying. Built into the supervisory aspect of the state court structure is a remedial forum for people who are having trouble with their lawyers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What you can do when your lawyer behaves badly.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>First, get informed:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Look to the right of this post and roll down to the <strong>Sites of Interest<\/strong> section. You&#8217;ll see a link to <strong>NYS Unified Court System<\/strong>. Click on it.<\/li>\n<li>Now you&#8217;re on the Court System home page. To the right, there is a columnar list of sub-sites. One of them is labeled <strong>Attorneys<\/strong>. Click on this link.<\/li>\n<li>Now, go to the left side of the page and roll your cursor over the <strong>Client\/Attorney Relationship<\/strong> link. You&#8217;ll see a pop-up list of further links. Click on the <strong>Client&#8217;s Rights<\/strong> link.<\/li>\n<li>You now see a 10-paragraph list called <strong>Statement of Client&#8217;s Rights.<\/strong> [In case you didn&#8217;t know for sure that you <em>had<\/em> rights, well, you do.] Read it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You may find this statement reassuring. To me, it&#8217;s a little weak, a little spare, even a little grudging. But I won&#8217;t critique it here, now. In any case, it gives you an idea of your status as a client and what you should expect from your lawyer.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>So let&#8217;s go back to the left column, the <strong>Client\/Attorney Relationship<\/strong> link. Roll your cursor over it. Click on <strong>Statement of Client&#8217;s Responsibilities.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Read it carefully. Apply honest self-analysis, especially regarding your behavior to your lawyer (Item 1) and your expectations of him or her (Item 6).<\/li>\n<li>Roll your cursor over that <strong>Client\/Attorney Relationship<\/strong> item again and click on <strong>Letters of Engagement Rules<\/strong>. Did your lawyer provide you with an adequate letter of engagement or a retainer agreement?<\/li>\n<li>Now go back to the <strong>Client\/Attorney Relationship<\/strong> link, roll your cursor again and click on <strong>Attorney Rules of Professional Conduct (Part 1200). <\/strong>It&#8217;s only 43 pages and isn&#8217;t really scary\u00a0\u2014 unless you, like me, think it&#8217;s remarkably thin in the Client\/Lawyer Relationship categories.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Of course, all this information pertains to the New York State court system. But your state must have something similar, using similar terminology. Search on &#8220;name of your state&#8221; + &#8220;court system.&#8221; You&#8217;ll find it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Next:<\/strong> Do you have a valid grievance against your lawyer?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rabelais had satirized the mountain of documents that piled up around every case: his character Judge Bridlegoose spent hours reading and pondering before making his final decisions by tossing dice, a method he found as reliable as any other. Many &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=7520\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1175],"tags":[480,479,478,6,32,4,436,30],"class_list":["post-7520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-facts-of-life","tag-attorney-code-of-professional-conduct","tag-client-and-lawyer-responsibilities","tag-client-grievances","tag-experienced-plaintiff","tag-how-lawyers-drive-clients-crazy","tag-interpreting-lawyers","tag-law-and-the-courts","tag-lawyers"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t<!-- All in One SEO 4.9.10 - aioseo.com -->\n\t<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How to investigate your rights as a client before you learn whether you have a valid grievance against your lawyer.\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"max-image-preview:large\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Naomi\"\/>\n\t<meta name=\"keywords\" content=\"sarah bakewell,how to live or a life of montaigne,what to do if your lawyer ignores you,how to complain officially about your lawyer\\&#039;s conduct,nys unified court system information,what are legal clients\\&#039; rights,what are legal clients responsibilities,client\/attorney relationships,nys statement of client\\&#039;s rights,nys statement of client\\&#039;s responsibilities,did your lawyer give you a letter of engagement,did your lawyer give you a retainer agreement,attorney rules of professional conduct,nys attorney rules of professional conduct,,attorney code of professional conduct,client and lawyer responsibilities,client grievances,experienced plaintiff,how lawyers drive clients crazy,interpreting lawyers,law and the courts,lawyers\" \/>\n\t<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=7520\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"generator\" content=\"All in One SEO (AIOSEO) 4.9.10\" \/>\n\t\t<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"aioseo-schema\">\n\t\t\t{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\\\/?p=7520#article\",\"name\":\"What can you do when your lawyer ignores you? 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