Choosing a Lawyer (Part I)
By Richard K. Gustafson
I feel compelled to write about this issue because yet again I received an email from a person about a very bad experience she is having with her bankruptcy lawyer. I won’t bore you with the facts, but suffice it to say that the Chapter 7 case has turned into a mess. The trustee in this person’s bankruptcy case is suing her mother to recover some property she allegedly transferred to her mother prior to filing the bankruptcy. Evidently the trustee’s actions are a surprise to her. This is where the breakdown in representation, in my opinion, occurs.
While I don’t believe it is the attorney’s fault that this debtor entered into a transaction prior to filing because this transaction probably took place prior to her hiring the attorney, it is the attorney’s fault for not asking enough questions and providing enough advice to prepare his client for the possibility of what has happened.
This debtor says that she chose her lawyer based on his 30 years’ experience. There are other things the debtor revealed to me that leads me to believe that while her attorney may have been practicing law for 30 years, the attorney did not demonstrate sophisticated knowledge about areas of law important in representing someone in bankruptcy.
So how can someone tell what they are getting prior to hiring an attorney? That’s a good question and one that doesn’t have a clear and easy answer. In most states, it is unethical in attorney advertising to compare services with other lawyers. I think this is unfortunate as the public really has very little way of separating out good lawyers from average or poor lawyers. At the risk of giving you a sales pitch (I try to avoid that in this forum), I feel compelled in future posts to point out some helpful factors you should consider when making your decision about how to hire a bankruptcy lawyer. You can also take a look at this article on how to select a bankruptcy lawyer.
