Public Health Law Map - Beta 5 - Medical and Public Health Law Site

company benefits from the delay if the cost of reinsuring the risk of the unpaid claim
is less than the income they can earn on the money that will be needed to pay the
claim. Defense lawyers personally benefit because delayed cases require constant
maintenance, with the attendant opportunities to bill the client.
G. Being an Effective Client
Attorneys advise clients that contracts for services should be clear and specific about
work to be done, how much it will cost, and how to resolve disputes if the client is
dissatisfied with the services. Unfortunately, legal representation contracts are usually
vague about charges and the work to be done. The legal client should require that the
representation agreement provide the same information as any other contract for
services: the work to be done and what it should cost.
An effective client must understand the dimensions of his or her legal problems and the
specific tasks that must be performed. The attorney must teach the client about the
legal problem just as the physician must teach patients enough about their medical
problems to allow them to make informed decisions. Simple legal services do not
require a lengthy explanation, but many legal services are complex, requiring months
to years of work. These services may cost the client tens to hundreds of thousands of
dollars. A client engaging an attorney for such a prolonged relationship is entitled to
considerable detail about the strategy and progress of his or her case.
The client should ask the attorney to document the information the client is given about
the case: the work to be done, who will do the work and their expertise, the billing
rates for various personnel, and estimated costs of the different services to be
performed. The client may want to ask the attorney to draw a diagram of all the steps
in resolving the legal problem. This graphic display of the chronology is effective in
eliminating uncertainty about what needs to be done. This diagram should be included
in the client’s documentation.
In addition to the traditional bill, the client should ask for a running total for each task
outlined on the legal road map. For a deposition, each month’s bill should include the
total of all charges relating to the deposition that have been incurred to date. The bill
should also group hourly charges for the deposition together rather than presenting all
the hourly charges in chronological order. If the client’s road map of the case includes
the various steps in a deposition, the client can reconcile the road map with the bill
each month.
H. Preventive Law and Compliance
Clients must specifically discuss whether they want the attorney to review their general
legal situation. This process, called a preventive law audit, is meant to assess the
client’s legal condition in the same way that a history and physical examination is
meant to assess a patient’s medical condition. Preventive law audits have been a
mainstay of environmental law for many years. If there is an allegation of criminal
wrongdoing, such as an intentional violation of a dumping regulation, the presence
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