How To Become A Lawyer

TIP 16 Returning Calls

Teach your customer from the start about what to anticipate in terms of returned telephone calls. Respond to your customers. Have one of your staff call if you can not take action. Clients pay a lot of money for attorneys and proper attention is deserved by them.

TIP 4 "Getting Instructions"

Inexperienced counsel often use the excuse that they cannot make a decision on a matter until they "get directions" from their client. This is a cop-out. Not the customer, the attorney, has the discretion with regard to granting accommodations which prejudice the client's rights or do not directly affect the merits of this situation to the side. This would include reasonable requests for time expansion, adjournments, provision for disclosure in another type than procedural or requested matters.

TIP 10 Educating Your Clients

Give your customer the value of your experience and experience by supplying them with information which is pertinent to their case. This can be achieved easily and inexpensively by purchasing third-party materials such as brochures, tapes or books which are related to your area of law. You can give your clients materials from the library, either as a backup or online. Sometimes, you may also supply clients with websites or telephone numbers where they can obtain the info . (Although this last source is valuable, most customers have a tendency to overlook them and watch them as less valuable than actually receiving hard copies of materials from you.)

TIP 13 Homework for Your Customer

In the initial interview with a client, emotions are usually heightened and this is not the best time to provide the client a lot of homework to do. As the file progresses, it's crucial to ask the client to do their homework and supply documentation that is proper to you. The documentation could be put out in a form and checking off the items you want.

TIP 17 Soothing Your Clients

As soon as your customer has quite a difficult issue which is much more psychological than legal, try using the term "That's a very difficult issue to solve". By way of instance, where your client is complaining or the other hand is saying inappropriate things about your client, using this phrase often helps clients to proceed with the difficulties at hand. Lawyers have reported that the simple phrase really works.