Illinois lawyers in general are not taught a ton about running a business. As a result I know a lot of very good attorneys who are terrible at running a law firm.
Knowing how to run a business isn’t a requirement for opening a law firm. So many attorney just wing it and go with what they know. One of the common statements about running a business is, “The customer is always right.” It may be controversial, but that’s a terrible way to run a law firm.
The reality is that the customer is often wrong. If a lawyer isn’t willing to tell you that you are wrong and why, they are doing you a disservice.
For example, we will get a call from people telling me that they want a medical malpractice lawyer and then tell us facts that make clear there’s no case. Maybe the time limit for suing has passed or what happened to them is a known risk or they haven’t suffered any physical harm, but want to sue because something bad could have happened.
We take the approach that a lawyer should be very direct and honest. That includes telling people that don’t have a case that they don’t and why we think that. That doesn’t stop anyone from seeking a second opinion, but at least they’ve gotten the truth.
Some people love and appreciate directness. A lot of people just want to know if they have a case and can accept the truth even if it seems unfair. Other people don’t appreciate it. I get that, but to us being direct is the only way to be.
The alternative is to lie to the customer. A lot of lawyers will tell you that you have a great case, but they are too busy to take it on. Or they will come up with some other excuse that gives you false hope. To me that is much worse than being direct even if it upsets someone to be told that there’s nothing that can be done.
You come to an attorney because they have knowledge and expertise about the law. We try to be as nice as we can be, but if we don’t use our knowledge, honestly, it’s bad for you. So we encourage people to accept that they could be wrong when they think that they have a case.
Final thought. We make money if you have a great case. We want you to have a great case. If there’s any way we can help you be in the right legally, we will do whatever we can to make that happen. And fortunately many people do have good cases and we’ve been able to help tens of thousands of them.
