Consumer Survival Kit; 314; Lawyers

And. For Public Broadcasting. Hello I'm Larry Lohmann. Most of us think that lawyers are for the rich and powerful. We may realize that we too could use some legal help from time to time but many people with moderate incomes have been turned off by the problems of finding a lawyer and affording his fee. Well things are looking up some new ideas for getting legal services to the people who need them are starting to catch on in this program reify can reports on one of these developments prepaid legal plans that work something like health insurance. Bob Smith sums up the evidence that indicates when you actually need an attorney friend Joe Hanson comes to the defense of the consumer who is dissatisfied with his lawyer and friend also previews this week's survival kit publication. We'll take a

judicious look at legal fees and present a strategy for finding a lawyer who's right for you down to the right questions to ask when you find yourself sitting in his or her office. But first a quiz. Number one a lawyer can refuse to finish work for a client until the client finishes paying his fee. True or false. Number two law students are trained to specialize in specific areas of the law. True or false. Number three the most common complaint made by clients against their lawyers is the charging of excessive fees. True or false. Now let's look at the answers. Number one is false. A lawyer cannot refuse to finish work for a client until the client finishes paying his feet. If he does he's violating his code of professional responsibility. The American Bar Association says quote The failure of a client to pay for his services does not relieve a lawyer of his duty to perform completely and on time. A lawyer may condition initial

acceptance of employment upon payment of the fee in advance but once services have been contracted for. He may not condition completion of the services on payment of his fee unquote. So if a lawyer says no more work on this case until you finish paying the fee. Remind him of his responsibility. Most lawyers take their code of responsibility very seriously because they don't want to hurt their professional reputations or to be disciplined by the state bar. They're also aware that neglect of duty which damaged a client could expose them to a malpractise suit. Of course none of this gives you a license to neglect your duty which is to pay the fee. Number two is also false law students are not usually trained as specialists with a few exceptions. Law schools turn out general practitioners so in theory any lawyer can handle any legal problem. In actual fact you are often better off with a lawyer who handles many cases like yours will have more about finding the right lawyer in just a bit. Number three is false again. The most common

complaint made by clients against their lawyers is not the charging of excessive fees. Plenty of clients are angry about fees but even more of them are upset because they feel that their lawyer has procrastinated and done nothing to advance their case. Sometimes it's a communication problem. The lawyer is working but he hasn't kept his client informed. There's a relatively simple step you can take to keep track of your lawyer's progress. That's coming up. But first some deliberations from Bob Smith. Oh. Tune in tomorrow night for the next exciting episode of Perry Mason. While dynamite. Oh hi. Now you know my secret. I am a court room drama freak. When Perry Mason stands up in Intel's May it please the court. I. Get goose bumps. But addicted as I am. Part of me keeps in touch with reality. I know that in the real world the practice of

law there is very little resemblance to good old Harry's pyrotechnics. Oh if you're accused of murder you'll get defended All right. In fact the law insists on it. But thank heavens most of us will never face that situation. So I've done a little research on the subject of when you really need a lawyer for example. Do you need a lawyer to defend yourself against a criminal charge. Absolutely. To fight a traffic charge you don't need a lawyer unless your driver's license is in jeopardy and which case you had better get to write a will you might be able to handle a very simple one yourself. But to make sure that you've anticipated any problems that might occur. It's a good idea to go to a knowledgeable lawyer for this service to probate a will that is several and a state. I might try it myself if the estate were very simple. With any complexity need a lawyer some probate judges may strongly advise a lawyer because they think a lot of lawyer can't handle the legal technicalities involved in settling in a state. What if the other

guy has a lawyer. Or if you're served with legal papers in a civil lawsuit. Better get a lawyer if you're adopting a child. You'd be better off with legal advice. Ditto absolutely for a contested divorce although if the divorce is uncontested and you don't have children or property to worry about you can try it on your own. If the law in your jurisdiction allows it. Buying a house in a recent survey fewer than 40 percent of those interviewed used a lawyer when they bought property. Although it can be valuable to have a lawyer review the sales contract and other documents before your side them. In some places the mortgage company will insist on having the lawyer search the title when you're buying and they may even specify which lawyer. This more you represent the mortgage company's interest but you pay is feet. If you want the mortgage. There isn't much that you can do about it. If you had the misfortune to be involved in an auto accident

and to be sued for more than your insurance coverage you really would need a lawyer. There are some things that you can do yourself. For one you don't need a lawyer to sue in small claims court and consumers are often successful when they do. For another. Turns out that changing your name is a snap only but would I change it to Bob Smith. Robert Perry Mason Perry Mason Smith. I. Did see. You know what it means to me to see him in so little. Why I've been worried sick. When you jointed my legs. And. I know.

You have trouble. Oh. Yeah you got it. Yes it's. True in my time I applied my share of lawyers and there is some basic knowledge about that I can impart to you. Yeah. The first thing to remember is that you should discuss the fear arrangements at the very first meeting with a lawyer. And preferably get it in writing. Yet here the second principle is that a lawyer Spears never carved in stone and you should negotiate with him about it. It's also useful to know that there are four ways a lawyer can challenge you. Through. The phrase one being your basic one price covers a flat fee the second

one being your hourly rate in which case you should get a ballpark estimate of how many hours he thinks is going to take. Also if he's got any power legal personnel you know doing some biz Why is their time going to be tried that his out with great suit. It's also a good idea to find out if he's going to charge you to talk to him on the telephone Hello. Now the three basic ways your contingency fee plan. Which is where if you don't do you no good. You don't got to pay him nothing. Whereas if he really comes through for you he gets maybe a 30 to boredom. Now the fourth way is when a court says OK mouthpiece you can get a certain percentage like maybe every time he said in a state you can get Dartrey percent for your feet and which way is best for you depends on your individual situation. He should schmooze along with the you know discuss it. That's when to negotiate he comes in. I really like the hourly rate myself a couple of other things

ask about extras and it going to be court costs and travel expenses and clerical expenses that you're going to have to pay me. You try to get him to a demise his bill. Yeah oh yeah. Someone is going to charge you a retainer. It's like a down payment on a final feet. You ask if you get part of it back if you decide to drop the case. Wait a minute you just got here. You won't even tell me what your mine a legal manner was. A few more thoughts about fees. A lawyer may not charge a contingent fee for defending a client in a criminal case and contingent fees are strongly discouraged in domestic relations cases. Those rules come from the American Bar Association's Code of Professional Responsibility. Now on the subject of minimum fees it used to be that

local bar associations could set minimum fees for lawyers in their jurisdiction. A lawyer who charged less than the minimum was risking disciplinary action. What the Supreme Court declared mandatory minimum fees illegal in one thousand seventy five. So any lawyer who tells you that he must charge you a certain minimum fee for a certain service is telling you wrong. Now local courts can set fees and certain types of cases. For instance the court may establish a percentage of value as the lawyers fee for probating in a state and legislatures to sometimes set fees. For example in workman's compensation cases. Once you've decided you need legal help and you have a general understanding of fees you're ready to look for a lawyer. Some people argue that there's no substitute for experience that a lawyer who handles many problems like yours will pursue your case most effectively. The best way to find an experienced lawyer is through the recommendation of someone who's had a similar legal problem and resolved it to his satisfaction. Check organizations for referrals to for

divorce or custody matters try getting a recommendation from a men's or women's liberation group or from a single parent's group such as parents without partners for a consumer problem. Try asking your local Public Interest Research Group or Consumer Council for some names. Some credit unions fraternal organizations labor unions and other groups recommend lawyers and sometimes they've arranged in advance for reduced fees. You can also check the public library for the Martin Bill Hobba law directory one section gives a little biographical information about most lawyers. A smaller group of lawyers have been recommended by other attorneys and judges in their area are allowed to list their areas of concentration. That at least tells you the kinds of law they think they're good at. More than 260 bar associations run a lawyer referral services. You can usually find them listed in the yellow pages under attorneys of the service usually assigns you to a lawyer who gives you half an hour of consultation for about 10 or 15 dollars. If you retain the lawyer the two of you

must work out your own theory went from there. A referral service should match your case with a lawyer who has the kind of experience you need. Be sure to ask if they do. If you have a nearby law school talk to the head of its community legal program. That program generally serves only the poor. Although a few of these programs may take middle income clients on a paying basis even if you're not eligible for this program the director may have some recommendations for middle income consumers. For instance he or she should know whether there's a legal clinic in your community a legal clinic is a new and special kind of high volume law firm that handles routine cases generally for people with incomes between eighty five hundred and twenty thousand dollars a year. The clinics charge moderate fees for help with simple divorces. Real estate transactions estate planning consumer complaints bankruptcies and the like fees are usually posted in the office and they're usually significantly lower than the going rate in the community. For instance in one eastern state the average charge for a simple divorce is three

hundred forty four dollars. But a legal clinic will be one for $150 clinics have had problems becoming known because of the restrictions on advertising in the lawyer's Code of Professional Responsibility. The Supreme Court has agreed to look at the question of advertising. Meanwhile at least 12 clinics have survived in Baltimore Chicago two clinics there Denver in Honolulu for divorces only and in Los Angeles Oakland California Philadelphia Phoenix San Francisco Santa Cruz California and Washington D.C.. To do a thorough job of picking a lawyer choose a few possibles and schedule interviews with them. Some lawyers will give you half an hour of their time without charge whether they charge or not. You're under no obligation to retain them. Your obligation to yourself is to ask the right questions at this initial meeting so you can decide whether you found the right lawyer for you. Let's watch.

So that's the story. You have two thousand bucks I paid this guy to paint the outside of my house and it's beautiful. But one month later the paint starts to peel. Now I've got the only house in the neighborhood that looks like it's got skin disease. Now this guy I want to answer my phone calls. He won't answer my letters. I think I've just sent $2000 straight down the tubes. Have you ever handle the case like this before. Well not exactly like this but several that were similar. Would you like some coffee please. The most recent one was a situation where a roofer left a job in such a condition that at the next major rainstorm there was considerable leakage. And I represented the owner of the house. Well how that last case turned out I mean what was it like. Well we were able to work something out without going to court. I wrote a letter to the roofer and we agreed to meet this potential client is on his toes. He's asking some common sense questions designed to measure the lawyer's experience and interest in problems like his no additional cost.

So what do you think of my case. Well based on the documents you brought with you and what you've told me I think you have an excellent chance of recovering. Good. Now with the case of this tribe what happens first. Well the first step would be for me to write to the painter on my stationery. Coming from me it will probably have more impact than your complaints. I would write that I have been authorized to ask that he come inspect the job that he did or provide some explanation for such obvious deterioration in the paint. Please respond or we will be forced to take all appropriate legal action. Now of course you would receive a copy of that letter. It's my policy to send my clients copies of all correspondence and documents that relate to their cases. So what happens if the letter doesn't work. Well if the letter doesn't work the next step is to file suit. And in order for the suit to be properly set Service would have to be made on the defendant. Well service means that he actually receives a copy of the claim you're making in the presence of a sheriff and

very promising things are going on here. There's nothing vague about this attorney's answers. She's very straightforward and when she uses a legal term she defines what she means. For another she sends copies of correspondence and documents to her clients as part of her standard operating procedure. If you know the steps that a lawyer will be taking and you get copies of the relevant papers it should be fairly easy to follow the progress of your case and you'll have a way of judging whether or not your lawyer is procrastinating. Of course if the lawyer doesn't offer to sign copies the client should ask to have this done the same with fees. If the lawyer doesn't bring the subject up then the client should point out that discrepancy and in that way undermine his credibility. Now what kind of figure arrangement would you make in a case like this. Well I think you have a good case and my best judgment is that it can be resolved with no more than say 3 hours of work on my part. Well of course if this painter has a brother in law who's a lawyer and he wants to do the guy favor and make a federal case out of it that could be a different story. Let's hope not. My hourly

rate is 40 dollars an hour and I keep records of what I do with that time such as making phone calls and preparing documents and so forth and I start out every case by drawing up a letter of agreement in which the client agrees to the fee arrangement and I state the services that I'll provide. Well how soon with this letter of agreement be ready. Within two days. And how soon would you send a letter to that crummy paper as soon as we've signed a letter of agreement. This could develop into a productive relationship because a lawyer and client will know what's expected of them and when. The more these expectations are defined in advance the less the chance that there will be disappointments and grievances. Another kind of advanced planning has drawn about half a million consumers into arrangements for Prepaid Legal Services. The plans work much like health insurance rates like it has a report on one plan. Hubert Ward is a construction worker and a member of the Prepaid Legal Services Plan of the laborers District Council of the Washington D.C. area. The laborers plan is one of

about 200 prepaid plans now operating around the country. Few years ago Mr. Ward son was injured while playing football at school as a result the boy needed an operation. The insurance company refused to cover the accident. Mr. Ward What happened then to the insurance company refused to pay for the operation with the hospital. They got on me sent me to be sure and if they knew they would have to have the money and I went to Washington to the legal service to get him to Beale's turned it over to him and he taking it from then on. And then he made the insurance company pay the hospital bill in the doctors. Would you have consulted a lawyer if you hadn't belong to the place where we were very doubtful that I would perhaps probably started 15 hours a week on the bill because friend of mine in the next block got hurt

in this same insurance refused a huge deal so he started the whole deal is never about are you satisfied with legal services. Perfect service had been for the legal service I don't know what I will do it did. This is where Mr Ward took his problem. The labourer's legal services office Richard Scoobie the attorney who directs the 10000 member service described the benefits available through the plan. Mr. Scruby can you tell me something about the plan. The labourer's Legal Services Program is a fully prepaid program we do not charge our members anything for the services we provide. And we provide a wide range of services to our members ranging from serious criminal matters to traffic cases consumer disputes and housing matters. Do you think. Members of the plan know how to use it well.

In a sense the members have learned a great deal in the three years the plan has been operating in terms of how they utilize the benefits afforded by the program. And more basically how to use lawyers for their personal legal problems. In another sense it will be several more years at least. Before many of our members. Learn to rely upon the lawyers in their personal legal problems to the extent that I think lawyers can really benefit. The typical case that we think doesn't come into the office is a limited tenant case or consumer complaint. We're members and indeed most Americans simply do not seek legal advice or counsel when we have this type of problem. Members of the laborers plan pay about 33 dollars a year through union dues checkoff to cover themselves and their families. Other plans charge premiums of $12 to $200 a year and the premiums may be paid by employers or subscribers or they may be shared by both. In

exchange subscribers get a package of legal benefits which varies from plan to plan. So if you're thinking about signing up for a plan you should be very sure what you're getting for the money prepaid plans are so new that many subscribers don't take for the advantages of the services to which they're entitled. Richard Scoobie of the labourer's plan notes that this is a problem in the early days of health insurance too. Unlike conventional health insurance many legal plans offer preventive services like having a lawyer read leases and sales contracts before a member signs them. Part of the future success of prepaid may depend on heading off expensive cases by early counseling for subscribers with problems. A prepaid plan may mean the difference between getting professional legal help and passing it up. Another kind of service that uses group power to cut legal costs is the reduced fee group plan. This isn't a prepaid plan in the sense that paying premiums

entitles you to a package of legal benefits. However an initial fee entitles the member to a certain amount of legal consultation. After that he's eligible for reduced fees. Consumer groups employer groups and small unions have organized about forty eight hundred of these reduced fee group plans. If you'd like more information about prepaid and group legal plans here's what to write. Resource Center for consumers of legal services 13 0 2 18th Street Northwest Washington D.C. 2 0 0 0 3 6. That's a resource center for consumers of legal services. 13 0 2 18th Street Northwest Washington D.C. 2 0 0 0 3 6 for information about prepaid and group legal plans. When a lawyer is needed older people often have a lot of trouble finding and affording one to help meet this need. More than 80 projects around the country are providing legal help to elderly people. If you could use this kind of help or you know someone who could contact your state or Area Agency on Aging ask if your state is

participating in a program to bring legal services to senior citizens. And now with more information here's Fran Johansen. If you think a lawyer has been guilty of unethical behavior if his fee is out of bounds or if his conduct has harmed you in any way don't keep it to yourself. In every state there's a committee a commission or an individual charged with investigating complaints against lawyers. The highest state court decides who is responsible for these investigations. Most often the court delegates this function to a grievance committee of the state or local Bar Association to find out how the grievance procedure works in your state. Call the highest court or the nearest bar association. During the same call ask about the client Security fund. Most jurisdictions have one at the discretion of the administrator. This fund can be used to make restitution to a client who suffered financial damage because of his lawyers misconduct. In addition more than one hundred fifty Bar Associations have arbitration panels these panels hear

disputes about lawyers bills. Our survival kit this week is filled with tips on choosing using and paying a lawyer a shopper's guide to lawyers by consumer advocate Herbert Denton Berg takes you through the whole process including what to do if you're not happy with a lawyer. The American Bar Association is also concerned about grievances. We've reprinted their advice to lawyers about meeting their professional responsibilities because. It contains a lot of useful information about your rights as a consumer of legal services. When do you really need an attorney. 15 lawyers give their opinion. They all agree you don't need a lawyer to sue in small claims court. And another article in the kit tells you how to do that. An excerpt from a Reader's Digest publication goes into the sensitive subject of fees and from the script of this television program we've reprinted Harry's explanation of the four ways a lawyer can charge you elsewhere in the kit There's an article that tells you when you're legally liable for someone else's injury and a list of centers that give legal

help to senior citizens. We have a summary of the television program as well as a reading list to get your survival kit. Send $1 to cover reproduction costs postage and handling to lawyers. Box 977 Owings Mills Maryland 2 1 1 1 7. Please allow 3 to 4 weeks for delivery. That's $1 2 lawyers box 977 Owings Mills Maryland 2 1 1 1 7. If you'd like to have your own library of all of the 977 CSK publications send twenty six dollars to consumer survival cat box 977 Owings Mills Maryland 2 1 1 1 7. You will receive kits on Wills on the state's nutrition and money management. Just to name a few. Some lawyers joke about clients who want to be junior partners. However there is some evidence that clients who stay involved in their cases get more satisfactory results with some planning

and thought. You can choose a lawyer on a rational basis negotiate an equitable fee arrangement and help to move your case forward since the chances are that you'll need legal help at some point in your life. It's a good idea to check out the legal clinic and the Prepaid Legal Services Plan new ways of delivering legal help. We'll see you next time on consumer survival kit. This program was produced by the Maryland Center for Public Broadcasting which is responsible for its

content major funding was provided by public television stations additional support was provided by under strict a general program grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Ford Foundation.