Yesterday, I promised a follow up about a better result. Let me preface this by saying that last week I praised two lawyers with whom I occasionally come in contact, for their desire to find solutions to their client's problems, resulting in fairly inexpensive, low stress cases - I refer matters to each of them. Looking for a solution is they way to solve problems - looking to win generally creates more of them.
Several months ago, I had to deal with the fairly young associate of an attorney with whom I always have had a good working relationship. The associate was hostile and aggressive, and dragged me in to court on an ex parte basis [these are emergency matters, where notice must be short]. I objected that there was no emergency, I needed time to gather information from my client to respond, and there was nothing the court would do on short notice - she insisted on dragging the case in front of the judge.
The judge continued the matter to give me time to figure out what the dispute was about, as I had predicted. When the associate said she was going to charge my client with contempt of court for not paying support, the judge responded "No You're Not! I expect the two lawyers to negotiate and work this out between them."
The next week, when her boss was back in his office, he and I discussed the issue and the problem went away. We found a simple solution to a mistake that was no fault of my client, and the matter was resolved. The difference? The lawyers were trying to solve a problem, not win an argument. It would be nice if all cases went as smoothly.
