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THE ATTORNEYS’ ACHILLES’ HEEL
Understanding, Identifying, and Ending
Attorney Deception, Intimidation and
Overbilling
Jacob E. Goodman
FORWARD
This book is all about the inherent conflict of interest
between attorney and client. The conflict is simple.
Attorneys make more money by doing more work. Clients
benefit when attorneys work efficiently and end cases and
do their work as quickly as possible.
All too often, attorneys put their interests ahead of
their clients. They do unnecessary work, do their work
slowly, delay cases to give them time to do more work and
billing, and worst of all, they defraud their clients by
overbilling in countless ways.
How do they get away with it? Easy: they have
knowledge about practicing law and information about the
client’s case, while the client has neither. The attorney
controls what the client knows and what the client thinks.
During my 21-year career as a commercial, civil rights
and family litigator, I saw countless people chewed up and
spat out by the legal system. Although judges did much of
the chewing and spitting, most of the suffering was
inflicted by their own attorneys. I will expose judicial abuse
in future books. This book is about how lawyers
manipulate, intimidate, and overbill their clients and how
to stop them.
During my career, I’ve spoken to hundreds of people in
the legal system, with matters ranging from divorce to
estate planning, to complex commercial litigation involving
large corporations. Many of these people were seeking my
representation, but most were not. Most just wanted to tell
me their stories because they knew I would understand
what they were going, or had gone through. They wanted
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confirmation that their suffering was extraordinary; and
they wanted to tell someone who could grasp and relate to
it.
One of the worst things about being abused by the
justice system, its lawyers and its judges, is that very few
people can understand, much less be able to fully
empathize with, the nature of suffering the experience
causes.
There is a simple reason, a unique factor, behind why
the suffering one experiences at the hands of the legal
system is fairly unique and so extraordinarily painful. It
can be fully encapsulated in two words: powerlessness and
brazenness.
Obviously, human beings suffer terribly when they
feel powerless, a complete lack of control over their fate. It
is a horrible feeling that leads to terror. (By the way,
“terror” means extreme fear. It does not mean the infliction
of fear, in the way that the media has misused the word
since 9/11. The words they should use are “Terrorism” and
“Terrorize,” but apparently those words are too difficult for
them to say! Just an aside.)
Of course, examples of powerless leading to terror are
countless. Your car spins out on a wet road when you hit
the breaks to avoid an unexpected obstacle. The plane
you’re in lurches downward in a very bad instance of
turbulence. Your boss unjustly berates you for a mistake
caused by the failure of others.
In all of these examples, control is quickly restored
and calm and manageability is restored. You get control of
the car. The plane gets through the turbulence in one piece.
You are able to show your boss you had nothing to do with
the mistake.
On the other hand, when you are being represented by
an attorney, your feeling of powerless can last for years! It
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can be like being on an endless roller coaster but without
the assurance that the wheels cannot possibly fly off the
track at any moment.
This book concerns the “Powerlessness” of the
attorney's client and exposes it for what it is: nothing more
than an illusion concocted by attorneys for attorneys!
As for the other word, “Brazenness,” many of you
probably already know what I mean. Attorneys simply
know they can get away with fraud on their clients no
matter how obvious and terrible that fraud is.
Absolute power leads to brazenness. People who enjoy
absolute power become, as John F. Kennedy famously said,
“Corrupted absolutely.” People who are absolutely corrupt
become more and more brazen to satisfy their ever-growing
need for the thrill that power gives them. Without
increasing brazenness, they become bored with their power.
After all, what fun is power if you don’t do anything with it?
And if someone with power is following the rules, or
principles of common decency and integrity, one is not
utilizing their power.
While the attorney profits from working more on a
case to increase his billable hours, the client most often
would benefit from a common-sense resolution or
settlement o the case. While statistics say that 98% of
lawsuits are settled without a trial, all too often those
settlements come after attorneys have billed exorbitant and
unnecessary fees.
It is amazing in this information age, and in this time
when there are far too many attorneys available to come in
for dishonest ones who should be fired, that attorneys
continue to get away with giving their clients poor,
inefficient work for exorbitant fees.
I wrote this book and founded my new company,
LowerYourLegalFees.com, to help clients end the cycle of
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overbilling and intimidation attorneys have been engaged
in for decades.
Everyone needs a lawyer in the family; one who has
experience, has time, and loves you enough to look over
your attorney’s shoulder. Very few people are so fortunate.
From now on, I will be your lawyer in the family (although
I am a former lawyer and I am now a legal fee consultant,
and not practicing law.)
The bottom line is that, armed with the truth about
the real nature of the attorney-client relationship, and
armed with the objective, irrefutable truth about how
honest and efficient an attorney has been in his work and
billing, the client, not the attorney, holds the position of
power in his dealings with his or her attorneys.
The one problem with that is that until LYF, there
was little access to that knowledge and information. I truly
hope I will be able to change all of that for thousands of
attorneys clients until they realize that integrity is the only
source of power that they need.
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PART I
EXPOSING THE MYTHS:
CLIENTS ARE NOT AT THEIR
ATTORNEYS’ MERCY
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1. Introduction
Nearly all attorneys’ clients in this country have the
same basic thought when it comes to dealing with their
attorneys: I hope I picked a fair, effective attorney, because
if not, there is little I will be able to do about it!
This feeling is based on a myth, plain and simple. As
the client, if you have complete and correct information,
you have almost all of the power and control over your
relationship with your attorney. There! I have already told
you the most important thing anyone could ever tell an
attorneys’ client.
The problem is that the vast majority of clients feel,
and are certain, that their attorneys are in control; that
clients are at the mercy of their attorneys.
The reason most clients think and feel this way is that
– like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, who didn’t know she
had the ability to return to Kansas at any time – clients
don’t know, understand or believe they can exert power and
control over their attorneys and their fees. If one doesn’t
know one has a source of power, one does not actually have
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it. Therefore, again like Dorothy, you, as the attorney’s
client, live in a world of make-believe.
Your imagined world is created not by the Wizard but
by the legal system and the attorneys who inhabit it!
In The Truth: the Attorneys’ Achilles Heel, I explain
why you feel so powerless in your dealings with your
attorneys. I explain how and why your attorneys make you
feel that way. I then tell you the truth, the reality: YOU,
not your attorneys, hold the position of strength in your
attorney-client relationship. YOU, THE CLIENT, ARE
THE BOSS!
In Part I of this book, I will show you the sources of
your power, and of your attorneys’ weaknesses; their
Achilles’ Heels. The false reality that they control those
who pay them – drilled into the public’s consciousness by
attorneys, their system, and their culture – is so firmly in
place that even attorneys have forgotten that they created
this myth to begin with. They, like you in your present
condition, believe that the attorneys’ complete leverage
over the client is “real.”
It is not real. It is a myth every bit as fictional as the
namesake of these articles: Achilles and his vulnerable
heel.
Like Dorothy’s glass slippers, the myth that attorneys
have almost impregnable power over their clients is easily
shattered. This series, The Attorneys’ Achilles’ Heel, will
show you how to do it!
But first, I will give you the powerful reality, and
explain why it will come as a surprise to you.
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2. “Click Your Heels!!”
In dealing with your attorneys, you probably think
you are at their mercy. You might feel so powerless or
intimidated that you cannot or will not dispute your legal
fees or costs, or question the job your attorneys are doing
for you. You will likely refuse to confront your attorneys
even if you are certain they are overbilling you or is doing a
poor job on your matter.
There are many reasons you will feel more and more
helpless as your legal matters progress. For example, many
clients believe that if they complain to the attorney, he will
retaliate or lose interest in the client’s matter, resulting in
even worse performance or overbilling than the status quo.
Or, many clients just feel that they cannot competently
criticize their attorneys, and not wanting to look bad or feel
stupid, they stay quiet. Others simply fear or dislike
confrontation in general. You might have any number of
other reasons for being intimidated out of expressing your
concerns to your attorneys or even obtaining information
from them that you need.
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Regardless of the feelings you have that keep you from
telling your attorneys your concern or asking them
questions about your case, you have these feelings because
your attorneys want you to! He wants to control you and
the relationship. He wants you to feel inferior, to be afraid
to confront them, and to manipulate you away from inquiry
and complaint.
Your feelings are not founded in reality. Your fear is
no more real than that of the Cowardly Lion; and your
attorneys’ power over you is no more real than the Wizard’s
over Dorothy. The world in which attorneys hold power and
leverage over their clients is a fantasy world created and
fortified by attorneys.
Unfortunately, when large percentages of people
believe something to be true, their believed truth becomes
the reality. It is for that reason that in the legal world, as
with almost everything in life, there are parallel realities:
one is a reality generated by a consensus of belief; the other
is a reality based on true, real facts.
Despite the fact that the first of these realities is
based on misconception and a lack of knowledge of the true
facts, for those without knowledge, without information,
the first reality, that based on a consensus of belief, is every
bit as real for its inhabitants as the second reality.
As with most areas of life, which of these two realities
you reside in depends on one thing and one thing only: the
amount of information you have about what your attorneys
are doing and to what degree they are billing you fairly for
that work.
Like Dorothy with her glass slippers, you can have
everything you need to escape your reality to a world in
which you have everything you need to control your
attorneys, get their best work at fair fees. All you need to
get where you want and need to be is an intelligent,
knowledgeable advisor, willing to tell you the truth about
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the job and fairness you are getting from your attorneys is
all you need to “get home.”
Learning about your power, and un-learning your
notion that your attorneys control the relationship, is no
small
task.
Attorneys,
whether
consciously
or
subconsciously, have instilled fear in their clients. They
have intimidated you, and perhaps most importantly, they
have given you only the information about your case that
they want you to have. They have given you an incomplete,
and perhaps a false picture of your matter. As a result, you
don’t even have enough information to formulate a
complaint, or fashion an argument that would challenge
them.
If your attorneys are good people and care about you,
their need to control their relationship with you arises
mainly subconsciously, as a matter of an ingrained habit.
Regardless of good or bad intent, almost all attorneys
control their clients, and instill in their clients the feeling
that they have no power or ability to demand better
performance, or to reduce fees. This strategy often arises
only subconsciously because for attorneys, ego, arrogance,
feelings of superiority, and the need to control are hazards
of the profession. They become so ingrained in attorneys
over time as to be an intrinsic part of the attorneys’
personality.
Your attorneys began establishing their control over
the relationship before the first consultation or interview,
and they will reinforce this feeling in every conversation
you have. Have you ever noticed that, unlike members
almost every other service industry, attorneys say they are
“Retained,” and not “Hired”? When one is “Hired” he is
employed by, and is thus subservient to, the hiring party.
Attorneys will not even allow such an implication. Thus,
they found a word that put them on a more even footing!
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As a result of their control, you have probably never
been able to have a meaningful discussion with them about
their work or fees. If you’ve tried, they probably used their
skill of persuasion to deflect your concerns, and have
seamlessly regained control.
Your attorneys, like almost all attorneys, have you
convinced that they are in control; that they have the power
in the relationship. Implicit in your relationship is you
should fear challenging your attorneys. They use this
psychological advantage to get away with overbilling you,
delaying your case, giving you poor service, treating you
with disrespect, and misinforming you about what is
happening in your matter.
However, like Dorothy, they are only able to exert
power and control over you because you let them do it;
because you have not “clicked your heels.” And you only let
them do it because you, like Dorothy, don’t know that you
have the power to stop them. You do not realize that you
have everything you need to exert power and control over
your attorney, their bills, and your relationship.
Like Dorothy, all you lack is the knowledge,
understanding, and belief that you have what you need to
control your attorneys and their fees, and the confidence to
exert that power. You can, and should, demand from your
attorneys fair fees and excellent work.
Few clients know that they can exert power over their
attorneys, and fewer still know how to do it.
I am thrilled to give you this gift: the knowledge that
you have power you didn’t know you had. Although this will
help you in feeling differently in your dealings with your
attorney, you will not be able to improve your situation
significantly unless you have more and stronger knowledge
with which to negotiate better fees and service from your
attorney.
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With just a small amount of easily understood facts
and information, you can and will have almost all of the
bargaining power over your attorneys in negotiating past,
present, and future fees, and in requiring and causing your
attorneys to perform more effectively, efficiently, and
expeditiously (attorney word for “Quickly.”)
There are three areas of knowledge that will give you
the power to successfully lower your legal fees and improve
your attorneys’ performance and, if you have a good judge,
the results he obtains for you.
The first area are the general principles that decide
who governs all attorney-client relationships. These
concepts are what I call the “Attorneys’ Achilles’ Heels.”
Once the client knows them, the attorneys are vulnerable
and can no longer intimidate the client. These are the dirty
little secrets attorneys use, or hide from view, in order to
maintain the dream-world, in which attorneys have all the
power and the client is at their mercy.
In this dream-world, the attorneys’ Oz, attorneys can
overbill their clients, deliver poor work, and in many, many
instances, brutally abuse them, all with impunity.
To “Click your heels,” and reenter what should be
reality, you need to understand the true dynamics
governing your attorney-client relationship. You will learn
these dynamics, which consist mostly of rights, remedies,
and practical business realities, and which are the source of
your power as the client, in the Attorneys’ Achilles’ Heels.
Your fear of your attorneys are based on myths and false
assumptions that attorneys all circulate and reaffirm
constantly, and which clients rarely question.
Shattering these myths will leave you emboldened to
challenge your attorney, to show them that you are not
someone to be ignored or given mediocre service, and to
demand better work for lower fees. TAAH will explain
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exactly why your attorneys are a “toothless monster,” very
much like the Wizard of Oz!
Once you really understand why and how you have
the control over your attorney, and you no longer fear them,
you will be free to demand better performance and fee
reductions that you can see.
This
book,
and
my
company,
LYF
and
LowerYourLegalFees.com, offer these keys to shattering
these myths. Using the knowledge you gain from The
Attorney’s Achilles’ Heel alone, you should be able to save
hundreds to thousands of dollars in attorneys’ fees, past,
present and future.
Knowing your attorneys’ real weaknesses will enable
you to cause them to reduce their fees or improve their
service. However, as we all know, respect is not earned by
bullying and excellent performance and fairness is earned
far more with respect than fear.
To gain your attorneys’ respect, and to attain the
performance and fair billing you deserve and pay for, you
need your attorneys to see that you know what they have
been up to. You will need specific information about the
weaknesses in your attorneys’ performance, and the precise
improprieties in their bills. This information will earn your
attorneys’ respect and it will enable you to demand the full
amount of fee reductions you are entitled to.
Although learning and understanding the Attorneys’
Achilles’ Heels will dramatically increase your power and
confidence in your dealings with your attorney, you will be
exponentially more effective if you get a full, honest
understanding and assessment of the work your attorneys
have done and the fees and costs he has charged.
With this information, if your attorneys are about
average in their dishonesty, you should have no trouble
reducing your bills by 20% - 40%.
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However, you will have to get this information from a
person with experience in reviewing attorneys’ bills and
legal documents, someone who can read your bills and
really understand what your attorneys are doing. Only
such a person can arm you with the knowledge you will
need to get drastic fee reductions, specific improvements in
legal services, and the avoidance of unfair bills in the
future.
I want to give you this knowledge. I will audit your
bills and arm you with this information for a nominal sum
relative to the savings you will obtain and the importance
of the outcome of your case, even if it is relatively small. I
guarantee that I will find clear, attainable savings for you
of at least ten times the dollar value of what you pay for the
audit. If I cannot find these savings, I will audit future bills
until I find that amount of savings.
You can obtain this analysis from me, or you can ask
any attorney you know to do it for you. I strongly believe,
however, that I will give you better information and a more
thorough and in-depth analysis than you are likely to
obtain from a friend or relative who happens to be an
attorney. Most attorneys have never done the intense
litigation I practiced for 20 years. Also, most attorneys do
not like to point out improprieties of other attorneys. This
is all part of the Oz attorneys have created for themselves.
I, on the other hand, never felt a kinship with
dishonest attorneys. I often called them out. In fact, it is
because I called them out when they were dishonest that I
am no longer an attorney. If you want to know more about
this, see my biography, and just ask!
The third area of knowledge you will need to obtain
the performance and fair fees you need from your attorneys
are strategy. As you already know, talking to your
attorneys about your complaints or dissatisfaction is not
easy. Included in the package you will receive with you
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legal fee audit is a full, thorough negotiation strategy. This
strategy will enable you to obtain the results you need from
your attorneys without jeopardizing the friendly
relationship you have developed, if you are so lucky. Even
better, if your relationship with your attorneys are not so
friendly, the strategy and approaches in this package will
enable you to repair your relationship, or to recognize when
it is advisable to find a new attorney.
The negotiation strategy package also may be
purchased separately.
If you are hesitant to hire me to audit your bills
immediately, I will audit one page of your attorneys’ bills to
demonstrate to you the savings you will be able to demand
and obtain. If you decide to go no further, you will have
that analysis, and the savings it represents, probably worth
from $100 - $1,000.00 alone depending on the nature of
your attorneys’ bills.
Regardless of how you proceed with improving your
attorneys’ billing and service, you now are armed with the
first Attorneys’ Achilles’ Heel. You now know the
fundamental fact your attorneys do not want you to know:
the truth that you, not your attorney, have nearly all of the
power in the attorney-client relationship. Now, you have to
read the rest of the secrets I share in the remaining
Attorneys’ Achilles Heels in order to fully understand and
utilize your power.
The source of the attorneys’ power is their superior
knowledge. He uses that knowledge to manipulate their
client into believing he is powerless. This is a mirage, like
Oz and its Wizard.
On the other hand, the source of the client’s
vulnerability is his lack of knowledge. Once you know the
source of your power and how your attorneys have
disserved you, you gain power and control over your
attorney, their effort, your legal matter, and your legal fees.
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Armed with just this knowledge, you already can
begin to deal more effectively and powerfully with your
attorneys to protect your legal interests and reduce your
fees, past, present and future.
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