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SUMMARY
This series of articles has focused on how you can help your attorney help you. This article identifies some common practices that clients do that are not helpful. Unfortunately, because we live in a world that is technology based, many, but not all, of the unhelpful practices have to do with technology.
A, very brief, summary of certain practices that clients do that is unhelpful is as follows. Fail to e-sign documents; fail to read - complaint, discovery requests, responses; fail to know the facts of their case; fail to collect names of people involved; fail to search for documents; provide “photographs” of documents, especially a single photograph [file] of each page of a multiple-page document; fail to upload their documents, instead emailing those documents.
As this series of articles explains, you and your attorney are a team. If you engage in these unhelpful practices, you may force your attorney to spend time doing this work. If you have an hourly agreement, you will find it is very expensive to force your attorney to assemble and manage document files. With other practices, you simply won’t get the results you need.
DETAILS
Failure to E-Sign, or Quickly Move to the Alternative
E-signing is not that difficult. That being said, some people are simply not good with technology. If not, can you print an attachment to an email? No, can you receive US mail? Can you stop by the office? Let’s work to get the document signed, not focus on what you can’t do.
Failure to Provide Documents in a Useable Format
Again, technology gives even the most competent tech people problems. That being said, we live in a technology dominated world. We all have to deal with technology.
Documents are always time consuming to deal with. I will try to help clients with documents, to a point. However, clients need to remember, I charge by the hour, so the more time I spend on just assembling the documents, the more I charge.
One of the most common problems is that clients take a picture of one page at a time with their phone and email me individual pages. This can work with one, two, or three documents, of a small number of pages.
However, beyond that, it is simply an overwhelming task to organize scores or hundreds of individual pictures, assemble them in the proper order to create useable documents.
Solution - although not ideal, a large stack of organized papers is better. Please do not staple, because I need to scan - which takes time and costs you money. You’d be shocked at the cost of removing dozens of paper clips.
Don’t Email Documents, Upload them
We all get to much email. Your attorney definitely gets too much email. You can’t attach too many documents to an email, or the email won’t be delivered. It takes time for your attorney to open email messages, click on attachments, click through windows and navigate through file structures to save these documents.
Again, if you are paying your attorney by the hour, this can get expensive.
Instead, it is much easier for both parties to upload your documents. Upload is a process that is very similar to attaching a document to email. You simply click on an Internet link that your attorney emails to you. You will be directed to a website that allows you to upload documents.
Forwarding Email - Don’t Do It
You simply cannot forward me email and expect it has any use to me.
If you forward me an email in your case, that forward is not the email between you and someone else. It is an email between you and me. It is not evidence. Even worse, if I produced that email, meaning give a copy of an email that you forwarded to me to the other side, the other side can then ask you questions about our communications. This is a terrible situation.
The best practice is to print email strings as PDFs.
Printing an email string as a PDF is much simpler than it sounds. PDF is a file format that is a software that is installed on almost every computer. Most email programs, like gmail, yahoo, and even the venerable allow you to print a string of email by clicking on an icon that looks like a printer. From there, a dialogue box will pop up. A printer will be preselected. However, if you click on the arrow next to the printer that is pre-selected, a pull down menu appears and may let you select Adobe PDF or Adobe Acrobat. You then can name the file and choose where to store it.
Failure to Read Documents
The client must read certain documents.
The client must read the deposition notice. A deposition notice is a piece of paper that notices the question and answer session of a party. If the client is being deposed, a deposition notice must be served. The attorney should provide that deposition notice to the client. The client must read that deposition notice, and must read that deposition notice shortly after receiving it.
The client must read written discovery requests. Written discovery requests are written questions asked of the client. You need to read these documents soon after receiving them. You need to read these documents and particularly the questions asked.
After written responses are prepared, you need to read them, before approving that your attorney send those documents to the opposing party. You also need to read those responses again, twice before deposition, once shortly after reading the deposition notice, and once very shortly before the actual deposition.
Failure to Write Responses to Written Discovery
Written discovery requests are written questions asked of the client. I require that most clients write the first draft of the responses. See below for how not to respond.
Responding to Written Discovery with Emotions and Opinions
It is a mistake to respond to written discovery with emotions and opinions, with the exception of questions that ask you to describe your emotional distress. However, written discovery questions generally require simple straightforward answers in short declarative sentence. You can learn more about at an article designed to educate you on the difference from facts, and how to avoid them
You can read my other blog, to learn what kind of questions will be asked and a guide to how to answer them.
Writing N/A, or Not Applicable to Written Discovery Response
As stated above, Ted Broomfield expects you to type answers to written discovery questions.
You cannot simply write N/A, or not applicable. Generally, in my experience that does not even make sense. As I explain in my blog, , the form of written discovery questions is generally, state all facts, identify all documents, or identify all persons with knowledge. Well, as discussed throughout the client guide, these are areas of knowledge that the client has.
If we have thoroughly gone through the tools of discovery and created a chronology, a document list and a list of persons with knowledge, the client may be able to skip some questions, and allow the attorney to simply take sentences from those tools, especially in response to identify documents and persons.
However, N/A generally is not appropriate and does not help your case.
Failure to Understand, Say “I don’t understand,” without qualification or explanation too much
As this series of [prospective] client guides consistently explains. It is the client who has the legal problem. It will be the client who has to live with the legal results.
If you don’t understand something, this is normal. It is a good thing to ask for clarification and to seek to learn to help solve your own problem as part of the team you have formed with your attorney.
However, the sentence, “I don’t understand,” without more is not helpful. What don’t you understand. Is there a word or term that you do not understand? Is there a concept that you do not understand? Do you understand the words, but not the deeper meaning of the sentence? Do you understand the concept, but not what the outcome of the concept is?
Instead, of saying “I don’t understand,’ repeatedly, say:
If you say the term “I don’t understand,” a lot, try the above phrase and techniques, and you may find yourself using the term “I don’t understand” less frequently.
Want to print your doc?
This is not the way.
This is not the way.
Try clicking the ⋯ next to your doc name or using a keyboard shortcut (
CtrlP
) instead.