Lawyers should
return phone calls

Ask the Lawyer
By Stewart J. Berger

Dear Ask the Lawyer:
Why do you constantly trash other attorneys who don’t return telephone calls?
Over the many years you have written so many articles about lawyers who don’t return phone calls that sometimes I think you are possessed.
I disagree with you. I am engaged in a miserable divorce case. My lawyer tells me she will never speak to the other attorney. All they do is disagree. She will not return her calls.
I think my lawyer is smart. I think she is great. Let the other attorney sweat it out.
Now stick that in your pipe and smoke it.
Harriet

Dear Harriet:
I think you’re nuts. It is obvious that you don’t want to settle your case. It is obvious that you don’t want to get on with your life. All you want to do is make things worse. You are really lucky because you found an attorney who thinks like you.
I suggest that you ask your attorney for an interim fee bill. Because nothing is getting settled, it is logical to assume that the legal fees are increasing. Why make a telephone call which takes a few minutes when you can write a three-page letter that might take two hours?
Get a copy of your legal fee bill. After you see all the legal fees to accomplish nothing, I wonder if you will still have the same opinion of your attorney.
I exist in a different world. A major part of my job is to try to resolve cases and settle disputes. Certainly all issues cannot be settled by negotiation and compromise. Sometimes litigation is the only alternative. Sometimes everything can’t be negotiated and resolved, but certainly pieces of the case can be settled.
You can’t settle anything unless attorneys talk to each other. When multiple telephone calls are not returned, attorneys are not talking to each other, issues are not resolved, legal bills increase, client frustration increases and emotions are drained.
There are always people like you who really don’t want a case resolved. All they want to do is make the other person’s life miserable.
Since that is your intention, I suggest that you found the perfect lawyer. Stick with her.
But for the other 99 percent of the world, follow my advice: Demand that your attorney return every telephone call both to you and opposing counsel in a timely fashion. ••
Stewart J. Berger is an attorney with offices at 7207 Rising Sun Ave. Questions and comments may be addressed to Ask The Lawyer, c/o The Northeast Times, 2512 Metropolitan Drive, Trevose, PA 19053