What would you think if your lawyer did this?

[wendlesora]

Your lawyer tells you that you can write a supplemental pro se brief to add to his brief.....you feel his brief is inadequate as he has ignored many issues you brought up, but you cannot afford to fire him and start all over. So you agree to write a pro se brief yourself. Suddenly you get a package from that lawyer. In that package, is the pro se brief you are supposed to be writing yourself....your lawyer has written it in your name AND sent it to the court......the pro se brief is not representative of work you would do and is incomplete as it does not include the issues the lawyer completely ignored and has some minor inaccuracies....I am assuming the lawyer is charging the client to do this work.

the client is not comfortable fully representing herself and can't afford to start over.....getting the money back from this lawyer is unlikely--the lawyer review board is a joke....and the client can't pay a legal malpractice lawyer to sue...


what would you think/do?

[curney13]

Your lawyer tells you that you can write a supplemental pro se brief to add to his brief.....you feel his brief is inadequate as he has ignored many issues you brought up, but you cannot afford to fire him and start all over. So you agree to write a pro se brief yourself. Suddenly you get a package from that lawyer. In that package, is the pro se brief you are supposed to be writing yourself....your lawyer has written it in your name AND sent it to the court......the pro se brief is not representative of work you would do and is incomplete as it does not include the issues the lawyer completely ignored and has some minor inaccuracies....I am assuming the lawyer is charging the client to do this work.

the client is not comfortable fully representing herself and can't afford to start over.....getting the money back from this lawyer is unlikely--the lawyer review board is a joke....and the client can't pay a legal malpractice lawyer to sue...


what would you think/do?

Your lawyer wasn't wrong to exclude your arguments from the brief necessarily. As much as you may feel they're good or relevant, they might not be legally sound. In fact, a lawyer has an ethical obligation to not prevent frivolous arguments. Doing so could hurt you, your case, and even him, as he could get sanctioned by the court.

However, he probably shouldn't have moved on the brief knowing your objections. Ideally, he would have sent over the copy before submitting it to the court so that you could approve and correct any inaccuracies. I think your lawyer is trying to avoid having a conflict with you. He doesn't want to use your arguments and he told you to write your own brief to get you off his back, quite frankly. I don't know how justified his position is, but you can't blame him for not wanting to use your arguments if they're not legally grounded. That's just not going to work.

Basically, these are your options. 1 - Ask your lawyer why he did that and try to build the trust back up. It's possible he did this more for you than you realize. 2 - Go to a legal aid society that offers pro-bono assistance. 3 - Contact law school clinics in your area. Sometimes professors and law students offer free legal work as part of a clinic. The problem is that the clinic might not be offering the type of assistance you need, but it's worth researching.

[corcoran42]

There is no malpractise. The lawyer is providing the documentation needed for the client to go pro se on the case. The client is not entitled to get any money back, the lawyer is entitled to his pay for work done.

[wardell]

First, I would stab him 20 times across the chest. I would then thrust my wrenching, life silencing hand inside of his still-beating heart, TEAR away from the meet and vital organs and strew his entrails across the room. I take back my trusty dagger from his gaping chest-wound and slash his face with it as he tries to scream for help (the heart is STILL connected, by the way) that just so happened to be hanging around directly outside the door *INCHES* from him, me, and my cold man-hunting grip. I then proceed to squuuueeeeze the air left inside of his lungs, clenching his throat, and then spit directly into his mouth RIGHT before his final whimpers pertaining to his wife and children, whom I have pictures of now since I stole his wallet. Staring out the window for an escape point, I hurl his body out into the dark alley filled with hobos (they're my ride or dies. Especially Lefty). I then get my slightly stained, rusted meat-hooks from Lefty and bore it through his tender, lifeless, fleshy ligaments and again through his skull with manic force. I then take up to whistling my favorite schizo tune whilst dragging his bloody cadaver to his home residence and hang him from the plant-pot hook-lets hanging almost strategically above and back a space from the door's frame. I knock on his door EIGHT times exactly without stopping and in fast repetition while swinging from bloody-lawyer-daddy (being sure to get blood absolutely EVERYWHERE around his passageway to safety AND his family) grapple myself from the corpse to the bushes - still, somehow strategically placed - and wait for the family to open the door with hopes of their father returning from business much earlier than the schedule inside of his wallet happens to mention. I now wait. I wait and watch as the door cascades from a slow opening creak to a loud *BANG* that clashes at the wooden plank lining of his dimly lit porch of mayhem. I watch as their wide eyes of happiness and gaping smiling jaws slowly increase to a vocal disaster. I then would LEAP out from the bushes covered in their lost one's blood and shoot them all dead, except for little Billy, his youngest of three sons (I have a REALLY super cute picture of billy in my pocket that you just HAVE to see) so that he may change his father's wrong doings that cursed him to a blood-curdling slab of hell.

Aaaand end scene.