How To Be Your Lawyer’s Favorite Client

Help Your Arizona Lawyer & He’ll Help You Reach The Best Possible Outcome In Your Case

Once your Mesa lawyer agrees to take your case, they have many ethical and legal responsibilities to you to ensure that they are an effective legal advocate. However, there are some aspects of every case that will ultimately be under your control. There are several steps you can take to make sure your case runs smoothly, increasing your chances of achieving your ideal results. If you’re looking for a high quality, experienced attorney to represent you for a fair price, call or use our online form to request your free consultation.

Keep Clean & Organized Folders Of The Evidence You’d Like To Show Your Attorney

In any type of case, you will need some types of documents to prepare your petition and argument behind your case. Your attorney might not accept a box of dirty, torn, and disorganized physical documents. And your attorney won’t be happy if you email them a folder full of untitled screenshots, including several duplicates. Label and date your evidence, not just for your attorney’s benefit, but your own. This will help you articulate your arguments more clearly and concisely to the judge, which in turn could result in a ruling in your favor. Another reason you should pre-organize your documents for your attorney is because that is less time your attorney or paralegal has to spend sorting through them. This could save you several hours’ worth of attorney’s fees. This will also help you avoid accidentally sending something embarrassing, personal, and irrelevant to your case.

Don’t Get Feisty With The Judge Or Trustee

It may be tempting to insult or raise your voice with the judge if you don’t get your way. It’s crucial that you maintain your composure in front of the judge, whether you like what the judge is telling you. Removing a judge from your case is highly difficult and will only be done under limited circumstances. If you have an outburst in front of the judge, you could continue to face the consequences of it for potentially years to come. If your Gilbert attorney is spending energy wrangling your behavior in the courtroom, that’s energy that could be spent on strengthening your case. You can vent and complain to your attorney, friends, and even random people on the street- as long as you wait until after court adjourns.

Show Up On Time

This doesn’t just apply to meetings with your attorney. You should always be on time to more formal procedures like depositions and hearings. Being late could leave a bad impression on the judge, or could result in your case being continued or dismissed. This will also mean additional legal and attorney’s fees. All of this can be avoided if you simply show up on time to your appearances. Courthouse parking can be tricky, and you may need to wait in line for security, so plan to get there early. You should also make sure you request sufficient time off of work. If you can’t get away from work, it could have disastrous results. If your hearing runs late, you could get in trouble at work. Your attorney should be able to tell you approximately how long your appearance will take. If you have a remote hearing, make sure you know how to use Zoom and have all the appropriate software downloaded on your computer well in advance of your hearing. You should also be sure to dress and groom yourself appropriately- if you don’t own a suit, you should at least be wearing office attire.

Be Respectful To Other Parties In The Case

Whether you’re the plaintiff or defendant, petitioner or respondent, you may have some negative feelings towards the other party in your case. You should always do your best to keep insults and personal attacks out of your legal matter. This will reflect negatively on you to the judge, and could result in you being held in contempt of court or facing other penalties. It may be better, when allowed, for your Arizona attorney to attend hearings on your behalf in high-conflict situations. If not, you will need to find ways to help yourself hold your tongue whenever you have to interact with your opposing party.

Don’t Expect Your Attorney To Be Available At Any Given Moment

You should expect regular updates in your case, and your attorney should respond to messages in a reasonable amount of time. However, your attorney has other clients, which means other consultations, meetings, hearings, trials, and more. Just as your attorney gave your case special consideration and attention during your consultation, hearings, etc., you should be patient with your attorney so they can give that consideration to their other clients. It is also usually easier for your attorney to respond to emails rather than phone messages while out of office. Your attorney may even be willing to communicate via text message.

Be Honest About Your Situation From The Beginning

During your consultation, you may be tempted to twist or embellish facts to make yourself sound more favorable. It’s not your attorney’s job to judge you and your morals, and lying to your attorney will only make their job more difficult. The evidence will show the true story, so it will only waste your attorney’s time to have to decipher through the distortions. While you may have gotten used to telling a certain version of your situation to others, you will need to try to get past that once you retain an attorney. Your attorney should be understanding and will not laugh at you or insult you for your problems. And your attorney will be able to better prepare for your appearances if you inform them of the truth from the start.

Don’t Wait Until The Final Hour To Schedule Your Consultation

We get it- sometimes emergencies happen. But if you receive a summons for a hearing to be held in 30 days, you shouldn’t wait until 5PM the evening before to begin reaching out to attorneys. Emergency filings are available in some cases, but the more time your attorney has to craft your argument, the better. Waiting until the last second will also reduce the chance that your desired attorney will be available for your hearing date. Every type of legal matter is serious enough that you should reach out to attorneys as soon as you receive communications from the court, if not earlier. This is your first opportunity to show everyone- your attorney, the opposing party, opposing counsel, and the judge- that you are taking your case seriously.