05 May 2023
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Lawyers should know when to decline a client

A question many students and workers from the legal sector, especially the ones with less experience, have is if they can decline a client from acquiring their services. The answer is an affirmative one as an attorney can refuse to defend someone’s case.

 

Even if it is extremely weird that lawyers will decline a customer, it happens, and it is not based whether or not the person is guilty of something which has legal repercussions. It depends more of the kind of professional relationship that they establish with a potential client as they have to get on well and also build a connection which is based on trust and do not fear speaking of any thing related to the case with them. If the legal professional doesn’t feel that and also notices that the person is being hesitant with them, it may perceive that a person is not valid as a client and will result in the turn down of their demand.

 

There are more reasons on why clients get rejected and the most important ones are the lack of financial resources of the person in order to cope with all the judicial process, the differences in their own personalities that can provoke a negative impact in the communication aspect, the familiarity with some cases that can be challenging for the worker’s mental health and, also, the unethical behavior that some customers can show.

 

Rejecting is also a great opportunity to avoid malpractice problems and build a personal brand about the professionalism of the lawyer as it is selective and serious about the cases they deal with. For that reason, it is important to keep some advice in mind in order to know when to decline clients.

 

When to reject

 

It is important to avoid providing legal services to customers that set unrealistic expectations and demand regarding their case. It is especially complex to change their thought about their issue and they will get very mad about the lawyer’s work once they don’t achieve what they had in mind which can cause several future unnecessary problems. If someone is not down to earth it is better to decline their demand.

 

The bad attitude some people have towards the legal profession and its workers should not be tolerated when they require its services. This kind of client is going to cause many difficulties in the process of building a relationship between professional and customer based on trust which will make things last longer and with problems.

 

Lawyers also need to be aware of persons that use tactics based on pressure and manipulation in order to get resolved their case first. It is important for them to understand that a legal worker has more than one task in their workplace and cannot concentrate only in someone’s case. Moreover, this will also bring trouble as customers will get mad and will try to manipulate the lawyer to get what they want.

Copyright © The Impact Lawyers. All rights reserved. This information or any part of it may not be copied or disseminated in any way or by any means or downloaded or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of The Impact Lawyers. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of The Impact Lawyers.
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