Some men are heterosexual, and some men are homosexual, and some men don’t think about sex at all. They become lawyers. Woody Allen
After more than 30 years of practicing personal injury law I have a four (4) tips for clients who have been injured and are working with an attorney. No matter who you are working with there are some “dos” and “don’ts”. Obviously you don’t want to undermine your own case or in any way thwart your attorney’s ability to effectively represent you. When it comes to matters of personal injury litigation this is especially true because mistakes are costly-and the money will come directly out of your pocket!
It’s important to understand how your attorney’s brain works. It’s not so much that attorneys think differently than the average Joe or Mary. Rather it’s a question of emphasis.
What is that emphasis? What is the focus that personal injury lawyers usually bring to bear on any given case? How does your lawyer think? What are his or her priorities?
1.The Facts. Obviously a personal injury lawyer, like any good lawyer, is trained to follow the facts. Good facts, bad facts- it doesn’t really matter. Your lawyer wants facts. All of them. Personal injury lawyers generally don’t like surprises. They don’t want to be caught off guard. No one likes to feel stupid and this is especially true of lawyers who have spent many years in school and have learned lots of big words-even Latin ones. No lawyer wants to appear before a judge and be embarrassed that what he or she says is categorically or demonstrably false.
So the first tip I have for you is to tell your lawyer as much as you can-both the good and the bad-and restrain your impulse to edit or abridge or shade or color the facts. The best lawyers are very good at asking questions. Indeed, even those lawyers that got C’s in law school are very good at tearing apart “editorials” and getting to the fundamental and critical facts.
In the everyday world “facts” and “opinions” blend often indistinguishably into one another. You know the old joke about everyone having an opinion. Save your opinions. I can guarantee you that your lawyer is not concerned about your opinion. Not because he doesn’t care about you as a person but rather because his job is -first and foremost- to get to the heart of the matter. He wants to know what happened, when it happened, how it happened, who was there, who wasn’t there, what happened next, which emergency room did you go to, what tests you received, whether you admitted or discharged; did you follow up with a subsequent medical appointment, what surgeries or procedures you underwent or are scheduled for, how much time you missed from work and how much time you are likely to miss in the future.
I could go on and on with similar type of questions the lawyer wants to have answered but I trust you get the point. Try your best not to spin the facts. Spin or what lawyers call “argument” has a place but that place occurs much later on in the litigation. Don’t muddy the waters upfront. Keep it clean. Listen to your lawyer’s questions and give the lawyer what he asks for. Plus, if you don’t know, say so. Resist the temptation to sound smart or to conjecture or to opine about this or that. Leave the arguing to your lawyer. Let him earn his fee. If you don’t know some fact tell your lawyer you don’t know. If you can’t remember tell the lawyer you can’t remember. Don’t guess. (This is especially true during your deposition but I will cover that subject in a subsequent article).
2.Listen. This brings me to my second piece of advice. Listen very carefully. Everyone I have ever met thinks they are a good listener. No exception. “I have ears, don’t I?” WRONG!! Most people are terrible listeners. Most people “think” they heard the question and then go on by responding with some self–serving platitude or clap trap. To make matters worse they not only fail to respond directly and sharply to the question but go on talking about something that was not even asked. This is especially true for smart people. They love to show how smart they are. They love to go on and on about things that haven’t been asked and volunteer or “anticipate” answers to questions that have not been asked, may never be asked and don’t need to be asked. It would be comical or entertaining except for the fact that it wastes time and pours money down the drain. Your money. In this post-therapeutic world we all know the value of “feeding back” what you just heard. You don’t have to go to that extreme but you do have to keep in mind what your teachers called the “call of the question”. Listen to the question. Assume there is a reason why the lawyer asked it. Answer the question. Listen intently on exactly what was asked of you. Listen to the words. Answer the question first. Resist overblown explanations. If you must say more do so but do it only after you have directly answered the lawyers questions. If your lawyer asked you “where” you were going at the time of the accident don’t do the following” “Well I just had lunch and a friend asked me to drive him back to his office so I told him I would do so but then we stopped at another friend’s house in shanghai and got in his car. We were just talking and stuff and then my friend said he had to go to the bathroom so we stopped at the “7-11” and then we met another guy and I wasn’t feeling too good so I asked them to take me home and then we got into this argument because my friend said he was late and ……..”
Which brings me to a sub-point. Realize that the Attorney–Client initial interview and subsequent meetings are not therapeutic sessions. Working with the lawyer is not some touchy-feely free-for-all but rather a direct, fact-based and law driven process. Yes, of course there are human emotions at stake and many lawyers are good at counseling but try to restrict yourself from going into areas that you haven’t been asked to go into. Realize that this isn’t Oprah or Dr. Phil
3.Tell the Truth. My third piece of advice is to tell the truth. Everyone tells you to “tell the truth” so you would be justified in being suspicious about whether this is really the case. It is. Lawyers can work with good facts and bad facts. Lawyers can work with terrible facts. Horrible facts. Egregious facts. But lawyers get tripped up when clients lie. Whatever an initial or superficial advantage you think a “white lie” may give you I can assure you that in the end it will come back to bite you. A “little” exaggeration here, a “little” exaggeration there, “minimizing” a fact here “dodging” another fact there, “forgetting” an important point all will come back to haunt you. Lawyers are very good at making mountains out of molehills. Even little lies can be amplified in a good lawyer’s hands to make you out as an outright liar and perjurer. Be careful about your little “molehills”. Tell your lawyer everything. Tell it straight. Your lawyer is not there to judge you or second-guess you or psychoanalyze you or any such thing. The lawyer is there to take what he has and make the very best case he can. I have many times been given “bad” facts and yet I have prevailed on behalf of my clients. I can work with bad facts. I can’t work with a lying client. Defense lawyers lick their chops when they catch you lying. It’s more satisfying than sex.
4.Stay Active. My last bit of advice is to stay as active as you can while your case moves from stage to stage. Most lawyers are diligent. This is especially true when it comes to personal injury lawyers who don’t get paid until the case settles. But, lawyers a human too. Sometimes their caseloads are too large and they are juggling too many balls in the air. There is great truth to the expression “the squeaky wheel gets the grease”. So squeak! Without being tedious or obnoxious find a way to stay in continuous contact with your lawyer. Let him or her know that you are serious about your case and concerned about it moving forward. Express appreciation for the fact that the lawyer has other matters but remind your lawyer that this is your only case and it is important to you. E-mail is an excellent vehicle. It’s short, quick and to the point. It doesn’t require great wordsmithing or even eloquence. A simple e-mail “May I please have a progress update from you?” will often do the trick. A written letter also helps not least of which because it creates a written record and lawyers are very sensitive to the written record. So squeak and stay on top of your case and remind your lawyer from time to time that you are paying attention-and more importantly that you are paying him ( ultimately) so he’d better be paying attention too!
After more than 30 years of lawyering I can tell you flat out that following the four little pieces of advice here will help to maximize your case’s value and better your relationship with your lawyer. He’ll appreciate it and you’ll benefit.
Ian Zimmerman
Personal Injury Attorney