In my bookshelf there’s a book called How Not to Get Screwed by Your Attorney that I bought years ago, and decided to re-read lately. It was depressing, as it cynically describes how many large firms bilk clients to increase their profits. I am not sure the situation is fully as bad as these authors say – but I know it happens.

Yes, the big firms do expect their highly-paid new attorneys to bill 2,000 to 3,000 or even more hours per year. The purpose of each lawyer is to generate profit for the firm, so given their high salaries, the newbies must bill, bill, bill. Since no one can truly work 40 billable hours every week, you can see why two clients are both billed for one trip to the same court for two cases, and the like. Some abuses are worse, such as charging for faxes and copies at 25 cents per page. The truly sad thing is that these activities put the attorneys in a position where they are not honoring the fiduciary duty to put clients’ interests first.

This may shock you, but at least a handful of attorneys really are honorable and wish that some of the luster and genuine service could be restored to our tarnished calling! And some of us really do care about the human beings we work with, and are aware that the high costs of, say, a divorce, can keep many people from obtaining the expert help they really do need. Some of us really do try to resolve, rather than stir up, trouble. The California Family Code actually states that the children’s best interests are paramount, and that attorneys should encourage settlement. Believe it or not! Alas, these things are now honored far more in breach than in observance.

Because I have an obsession with service, I try to stay abreast of what the public is being told (and sold) about law – especially divorce, which is probably the most common reason ordinary people suddenly need legal advice. Accordingly, I am pretty up-to-date on who is out there making promises of cheap services.

The book I was reading is pretty old, but it describes a practice (an unspoken rule) I knew of – and disapproved of – way back when I, too, worked for a large law firm. That practice is to bill as much money on a file as you can get away with. It was this dynamic that made me decide never to work for such a firm again. Many companies are still willing to put up with this practice, but the ordinary “end user” of legal services in the divorce arena is not – and I don’t blame them. Most of us do not have such deep pockets that we will pay through the nose just because it allows us to stay with a known quantity. We don’t have money put aside for a divorce – we can barely pay the bills we have, with gas prices (and mortgages and health care costs) rising as they are.

Today’s Marketplace

There are many changes in how legal services are marketed these days, not the least of them being the fact that the Internet has made much more information easier for anyone to find. This is, on the whole, an excellent thing. What is NOT so good is that a consumer has no way to compare the various options. Often, given a large number of choices at a time of uncertainty, one will choose the option that looks the cheapest. (Notice I said “looks”). According to economists this is totally rational behavior. But is it?

I’m sure you can see this coming – I am going to suggest it may not be. But I am also going to explain why. I think you will see my point!

The Wal-Mart Effect

First, the REALLY low end products – Legal Zoom, Nolo, and various “legal document preparers” – are fine if you are a sophisticated user and you know what you need, or if you have a really simple, short marriage. I use them for many things. By the way, none of them, to my knowledge, will tell you abut “Summary Dissolution” – the ONLY truly user-friendly way to end a short, simple marriage.

But if you are a total novice dealing with the legal system on your own in a time of upheaval, these resources may give NO help to you for 90% of what you need. All you get is some forms. Alas, there are way too many, and the need for each one and the proper use of the darn things – let alone the “getting it past the clerks” part of the equation – is, or soon will be, Greek to the purchaser. You.

Additionally, on some of the websites which sell “unbundled services” – a “Dissomaster” calculation and services such as “filing the petition” – there are hidden costs, and there is no way to know where you will end up. You also do not know how much, if any, attorney supervision is received by the paralegals selling these services. (Legally they cannot operate without this supervision. Did you know that?) I’d ask to speak to the attorney. If the paralegals hesitate, RUN, don’t walk, to a real lawyer, to at least ask some questions.

Who Can I Trust?

You have no way of knowing if the advice you are getting from a paralegal is accurate. You don’t know if the questions they are asking are the right questions. You don’t know how many pieces of the puzzle you don’t know, and you don’t know (but will find out) that you will pay for every little thing. And the “aftermaths” I have cleaned up, including the work of some document preparers, have been truly appalling. The harm they did was considerable, and there is no real remedy in these cases, unless you want to sue in small claims court. Most people don’t have the stomach for MORE legal proceedings when this has happened!

Dishonest Lawyers

In all honesty, I have also seen a lot of people paying top dollar for well-known lawyers get less than good service. Cost is not the only factor at work. Guess what is? That intangible but essential ingredient… ETHICS. And no, there is no litmus test for this. I wish I had one.

And there is one more factor of which few laymen are aware. The high fees that many family lawyers charge have some tangible benefits. One of them is that we don’t charge for every piece of advice or Dissomaster we run! I routinely do them for free for people who are not even clients. We also will give free consultations, sometimes quite lengthy ones.

Full Service, or the Nordstrom Effect

Another little known benefit of higher end service is that an ethical attorney who charges high fees will not charge for every little thing. We are well aware that paying $350 to $500 or more an hour is a significant life event for many of our clients.

In addition, an ethical attorney who genuinely wants to provide value to his or her clients will adjust fees based on how much the client was or was not benefited. In simple terms, we truly take seriously our fiduciary duty to our clients. That is, we put their interests ahead of our own – as we are REQUIRED TO DO by our canon of ethics. We do not just seek to maximize our income, no matter the outcome of the case or the harm to a client. And, least tangible, but most importantly, we really care about our clients.

The best of us (how many there are I do not know) look at the big picture. That is, we seek to take into account how the matter will play out after the client leaves our office.

How Do I Know?

Now, here’s the problem. Let’s say you call an ethical attorney that really does care. We can’t really say to you, “I am one of the attorneys that really cares.” Can you ask that? No. So, what to do? How to know?

In my personal experience the answer is to get a referral from someone you trust whenever possible. If that is not possible, do as much research as you can before you hire someone. It is a fair question to ask, “Why should I hire you instead of a cheaper attorney?” You will know if the reply is truthful or not. You just need to trust that your gut feeling about the reply is reliable.

The Truth Hurts

One more clue. If an attorney tells you things you don’t want to hear, she or he is probably honest! I just read a letter from a real estate consultant – a member of the Board of Realtors who has a similar role in real estate – to try to genuinely assist a client in getting what he or she wants. This involves telling people some things they didn’t want to hear – such as “that price is too high.” The writer said people often came back to her much later and thanked her for her honesty.

I’d like to say I have had that experience, but I have not. Most of the people I told things that they didn’t want to hear did NOT come back to me later and thank me. But I have followed up on the outcomes on some of these cases, and in each case, my predictions,  based on the truth as I saw it, were borne out. So, no, I wasn’t thanked, but I had the satisfaction of knowing my efforts were “in integrity.” I have had clients come back and thank me years later, even when I felt I had not been able to get them the results they deserved. I think this was because the perception that I really cared overrode the short term setbacks we encountered. In the long term, people who played fair (as an ethical attorney will advise you to do) ended up with the best outcomes over time. Remember that a lawyer who is telling you things you don’t want to hear is probably being honest, while an attorney who says what you want to hear is reeling you in and may drop you as soon as the money runs out. And they will. Trust me, they will.

The Long Haul

Last, but not least, remember that if you hire an attorney to help you with a marital situation, whether it is a dissolution, prenuptial agreement, or post nuptial agreement, that agreement is going to affect your life for a very long time. Hiring a licensed, ethical professional who has had some real world experience, and who will at least attempt to look at your future, is indeed an excellent investment.

Good luck!