The Call

 

There are two calls which are important to a practitioner. The first being your long call, a happy and memorable event where you are officially welcomed to be part of the legal fraternity. The other, equally memorable but not a happy event being the phone call to the client informing them of a court decision which was not in their favour. It is memorable because of the reaction it creates to the client.

The first call happens only once, the other one will come to you as many as necessary even after you accept that some things are beyond your control. The former is a group occasion with family members and friends in attendance. The latter is a road you have to walk alone.

I am still learning how to break the bad news to the client. From the senior practitioners I’ve talked to or whose exploits I’ve read about I can conclude that there are two types of reaction to news of a defeat in court. First, the client would take it in stride. Disappointed but understanding having known and seen you try your best. They would then ask what can be done. This reaction rarely happened to me.

The second reaction is that they turn hostile to you upon hearing the bad news. Heaping blame upon blame on you as if you are the architect, engineer and building contractor of their misfortune. Their natural distrust towards lawyers returned with a vengeance to the point of accusing you of colluding with your opponent to obtain a verdict in favour of your opponent. Then, if you are truly unlucky, they would refuse to pay balance of legal fees (if any). This reaction is more common to me previously.

Maybe I lack the skill of diverting or apportioning the blame to a totally unrelated party (the bird which shat on the judge’s car) or to a totally unrelated event (the war in Ukraine, Trump re-election). I used to be good at it as a kid (Broken vase? A bird did it. Homework not done? Oh, teacher said it was optional. Missing school shirt? Wind blew it away Ma!) but it was a skill I lose as I grew older.

Maybe I do not have the aptitude to sugarcoat the truth which is what they sought to soften the blow of losing. Unless you lost a case but managed to at least halve the sum of damages sought at the end of trial then selling a loss verdict as a partial win is an impossible mountain to climb. But as it is, nobody likes to lose. That could be the reason why they reacted negatively.

It could also be the fact that I tried to remind them of balance unpaid legal fees. Which I now collect before the verdict is out (the most important lesson I have learned so far was to always keep in mind Foonberg’s Client Curve of Gratitude when collecting fees). Either way I don’t dread losing. Ok, that is not right. What I meant to say was that I do not dread losing a case like i used to. Sure the loss stung and I might walk in the rain for a bit but, as long as I have done my very best and the client knows it, that is good enough for me.

I have not yet found it but I am sure there is a perfect way to explain to the client that they are paying for legal representation, their day in court and not the absolute guarantee of winning. I am after all a legal practitioner, not an operator of an MBG outlet.

We all want to be the winner but that is not up to us. All we can do is try our best. The verdict is up to God, Fate or whatever you believe in and the judge. In the courts it is to be expected that one party loses and the other is the victor. This is no kindergarten sukaneka with participation medals. In the courts the winner smiles and the loser pays.

Though I no longer dread losing, I still find it hard to make the call to the client but must be done and will be done, regardless of the client’s reaction. If I got an earful, what to do. Grit your teeth and bear it. It is the not the best part or the glamourous part of the job. But the job as a whole?

The best job in the world.