Hiring a lawyer for your legal dilemmas is never easy. For instance, if you’re working with a fiduciary manager for your assets and liability risks, you may also need a lawyer to help you preserve, manage, and transfer your private wealth. Since your financial assets are a very private matter, you want to work with the most reliable people around you.
Sometimes you’ll see advertisements from lawyers who don’t specialize in wealth management cases, but their advertisements say they do. These lawyers tend to believe such cases are easy to handle, giving them opportunities to earn quick bucks. Some attorneys even attempt to solicit from their clients and injury victims.
Whatever lawyer you’re looking for, it’s important to know your options when choosing a legal representative. They may come from word-of-mouth recommendations, client reviews, or referrals. But as you consider your choices, it’s important to narrow down your options to hire the right attorney for your case. With that in mind, here are the three types of lawyers you should absolutely avoid if you want to win your case.
Settlement mill attorneys
In case you’re wondering what “settlement mill” means, it refers to a personal injury law firm that manages large numbers of cases and concentrates on producing mass settlements. They often heavily advertise whether on the Internet, TV, radio, and billboards.
Settlement mill attorneys usually manage high volumes of clients that can go over a hundred. Some handle over 200 cases, or maybe even more. The problem with this is you cannot expect the lawyer to give proper attention to your case since they’re handling large bulks of cases aside from yours. That’s why most of their clients often complain that they’re having problems reaching out to their lawyer.
Another problem is that clients who hire settlement mill attorneys end up dealing with the staff more than the actual attorney. Worst, other clients hardly interact with their lawyer at all. It’s also difficult to speak with the staff since they’re also helping the lawyers in handling their cases. Although law firms utilize their employees for clerical duties, settlement mill lawyers depend on their staff heavily when accepting cases.
During trials, settlement mill attorneys rarely prepare their cases. They will surrender the case as quickly as possible because efficient and quick settlements are critical to their business. Investing too much money and time on a single case defeats the purpose of their business model. Since they’re settling cases quickly, lawyers usually under settle a case for a cheaper amount than what they’re really worth.
Sanctioned attorneys
Lawyers also make mistakes, even the highly experienced ones. But if the lawyer you’re hiring has previous sanctions on their record, be cautious or avoid them completely. State bars don’t simply sanction attorneys for committing simple mistakes. Otherwise, if the attorney demonstrated unethical behavior, then they have to face sanctions for going against the Rules of Professional Conduct.
Sometimes, sanctions are not only limited to negative behaviors but as well as major misconducts. These are lawyers who left their clients, settled a case without informing the client, failed to monitor the client’s funds, and stole money from their clients.
Each state bar comes with its own website, where you can research whether a specific attorney has received a previous sanction. You can simply look up their profile to check the disciplinary history.
Jack-of-all-trades attorneys
As the name goes, a jack-of-all-trades lawyer is one who takes plenty of cases from various practice areas. Most attorneys usually focus on a specific area depending on their expertise, but this lawyer is never picky when accepting cases. In fact, you can easily spot them if their advertisement includes a long list of their practice areas. For instance, a lawyer may advertise that they can handle family law, personal injury, corporate law, and real estate, along with a never-ending list of practice areas.
In small cities and towns, you’ll likely find these types of lawyers because legal consultants are very limited and lawyers have to expand their areas because of economic demand. Still, it’s better to exhaust your efforts by finding an attorney who specializes in your case to ensure you’re working with someone with previous experience on the same case.
Building a relationship with your lawyer isn’t always easy as it seems. But it’s important to know that you’re hiring a reliable lawyer to get the justice you deserve. Remember that you only have a single case, so you have to ensure to get it right from the start. After all, it’s better to be proactive about building professional connections to maintain a harmonious relationship.
