If you get into serious trouble, one of the best things that you can do is to listen to yourlawyer. They see your interests as their priority, and they (probably) know the legal system far better than you do. So, following their advice is (usually) the best course of action.
We reached out to the person who sparked the entire intriguing online discussion, redditoru/Sunieta25, and they were kind enough to share their perspective on lawyer-client interactions. Check out what they toldBored Pandabelow.
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Bored Panda was curious to find out what had inspired the OP to spark the discussion on Reddit in the first place. They were happy to share the story behind it.“I thought of the question after watching the video of the guy that joinedZoom courtwhile driving and his case was about driving while his license was suspended,” u/Sunieta25 opened up to us.“I saw his lawyer’s face trying to keep her composure from sheer stupidity and was thinking, ‘I wonder how lawyers even handle stupidity from their clients?'”
Bored Panda was curious to find out what had inspired the OP to spark the discussion on Reddit in the first place. They were happy to share the story behind it.
“I thought of the question after watching the video of the guy that joinedZoom courtwhile driving and his case was about driving while his license was suspended,” u/Sunieta25 opened up to us.
“I saw his lawyer’s face trying to keep her composure from sheer stupidity and was thinking, ‘I wonder how lawyers even handle stupidity from their clients?'”
I was on a jury where the defendant showed up in court day 1 wearing the same exact outfit as the “unknown suspect” in the video of the crime. It took only a few seconds before the judge immediately called a stoppage. All lawyers went into the back with the judge and they came out like 7 minutes later as announced the defendant had taken the plea deal. Wild.
“I read almost every story in the thread and had a bunch of good laughs while I ate my cereal,” u/Sunieta25 told Bored Panda.
In their opinion, it’s vital that clients actually listen to their legal representatives.
“I haven’t been in any position where I needed a lawyer, but I’d advise clients to listen to their lawyer because they went to school to study law,” they said.
“They know how the judge will respond to testimonies. Take their advice and cooperate the best you can and maybe you can get out of trouble.”
Around 1990 there was a guy on trial for armed robbery. He pled not guilty. A witness on the stand identified the defendant. The defendant jumped to his feet and roared, “I should have blown your head off when I had the chance…..” pause, thinks, adds, “if I had been the one who robbed you…”.
With the utmost certainty in his voice, he yelled at the arresting officer that “It’s not domestic violence; I’m on public property!”You could tell from his face he really thought he had the cop over a barrel on this one but….
IANAL, but I used to review disability claims so I often worked with clients who had lawyers.A man whose attorney had instructed him to not speak with us directly (a very smart, very basic recommendation) called me up to rant, angrily, that his lawyer was wrong. He COULD shop for groceries and mow the lawn and do all sorts of house work JUST FINE, thank you.Now I had seen this man’s medical records. There’s no way he was doing all of this without difficulty. So I probed a little further. He could shop for groceries… as long as he used a mobility scooter and had his wife carry things in the house. He could mow the lawn… if he used a riding mower and took a lengthy break every 10 minutes or so. He could do house work… which was limited to wiping down counters and folding (but not carrying) laundry. I called his attorney and gave them a quick update as soon as he and I hung up.I approved his claim, but that man is so damn lucky he got someone who was willing to take an extra 15 minutes with him.
Chapman Steffler LLPpoints outthat lawyers can actually reject clients. For example, they might do so if there’s a conflict of interest or a massive difference in personalities. Meanwhile, the legal representative might also be swamped with work or their client might not have the financial resources to buy their services. At the end of the day, what an attorney does will depend on their ethical code.Clients should avoid lying to their lawyers. It sounds obvious, sure, but it bodes well to keep this in mind. If you lie, you’re only going to make your representative’s work much,much harder. Not only that, but this will damage any sense of trust that you’ve already built between the two of you. They might even decide to drop you as a client to avoid any issues in the future.
Chapman Steffler LLPpoints outthat lawyers can actually reject clients. For example, they might do so if there’s a conflict of interest or a massive difference in personalities. Meanwhile, the legal representative might also be swamped with work or their client might not have the financial resources to buy their services. At the end of the day, what an attorney does will depend on their ethical code.
Clients should avoid lying to their lawyers. It sounds obvious, sure, but it bodes well to keep this in mind. If you lie, you’re only going to make your representative’s work much,much harder. Not only that, but this will damage any sense of trust that you’ve already built between the two of you. They might even decide to drop you as a client to avoid any issues in the future.
Not my client but the petitioner attorney’s client. The man claimed Workers’ Compensation and threw the kitchen sink at us, meaning, he basically listed just over half of his body parts on the claim petition stating that he injured each one. He was full of st and my firm knew it. Anyways, we were going to trial and the day before we ran one more social media search. This absolute f***g moron posted a video of him winning a break dance competition that was only a few months after the alleged work incident. Never saw a quicker dismissal in my life.
Whether or not to trust your lawyer is a serious consideration. It’s best to do some thorough research on them before you commit to them. Lawyer Monthlysuggestschecking out any potential legal representatives’ or their firms’ websites. One way that you can tell that the organization is legitimate is that the site has a security certificate. This means that they care about your online security and privacy.In the meantime, look up some online reviews about the firm or lawyer to see what folks have to say about them. Skilled and trustworthy experts generally mean good reviews and glowing testimonials. Meanwhile, you can look up your (potential) representative’s credentials on your country or state’s bar association website to see if they have the right to practice law in the first place.
Whether or not to trust your lawyer is a serious consideration. It’s best to do some thorough research on them before you commit to them. Lawyer Monthlysuggestschecking out any potential legal representatives’ or their firms’ websites. One way that you can tell that the organization is legitimate is that the site has a security certificate. This means that they care about your online security and privacy.
In the meantime, look up some online reviews about the firm or lawyer to see what folks have to say about them. Skilled and trustworthy experts generally mean good reviews and glowing testimonials. Meanwhile, you can look up your (potential) representative’s credentials on your country or state’s bar association website to see if they have the right to practice law in the first place.
Client in the interview with police:Police officer: “I don’t care how angry you are- you can’t go around threatening to kill a 5 year old!”Client: “I didn’t threaten to kill her!!! I threatened her mother!!!”He thought there was some sort of distinction there. We took a plea deal.
NAL, but my uncle used to be a prison manager at the local prison in the area of NZ where I grew up. They had ‘court’ hearings when the prisoners had done something against the rules etc, they’d go before a couple of the prison workers and explain, kinda like an internal hearing I guess. Uncle was the ‘judge’ for a lot of these.One dude had been found with a cellphone. Denied up and down that it was his, didn’t know where it came from, blah blah blah. Uncle asked him several times if he wanted to own up, guy absolutely INSISTED it wasn’t his.Uncle “well, someone’s wasted a hundred bucks on a phone then"Prisoner “F**k off, I paid $600 for that!“Uncle “………….“hahahahhaa miss his work stories.
Not a lawyer but I know a cop who went to a report of a guy being mugged.“What did he steal?““£275 in cash and about thirty £10 deals of crack and Heroin"“Really?““Yeah. It was _______ that did it, known him years and he’s a rival”Cop writes statement detailing what happened and what was stolen“Sign here if that’s all absolutely correct and exactly what happened and was stolen”Guy signs“Cheers. You’re under arrest for being concerned in the supply of Class A d***s"The cop prosecuted the caller for possession with intent to supply AND the guy that robbed him for robbery and possession with intent to supply 😂🤦🏻😂.
Being silent and doing nothing are two great pieces of advice. If you’re in hot water, the last thing you want to do is cause evenmore troublefor yourself. If your lawyer is even halfway decent, you have to trust them with your case and that they’ll represent you to the best of their abilities.Take their tips to heart. You stay calm, quiet, and polite when you’re told to do so. The legal system is so intricate that even doing something you think is ‘harmless’ can come back to bite you on your behind later on. Interacting with the other clients, attorneys, or judges beyond what’s allowed can lead to some really nasty results later on.
Being silent and doing nothing are two great pieces of advice. If you’re in hot water, the last thing you want to do is cause evenmore troublefor yourself. If your lawyer is even halfway decent, you have to trust them with your case and that they’ll represent you to the best of their abilities.
Take their tips to heart. You stay calm, quiet, and polite when you’re told to do so. The legal system is so intricate that even doing something you think is ‘harmless’ can come back to bite you on your behind later on. Interacting with the other clients, attorneys, or judges beyond what’s allowed can lead to some really nasty results later on.
Client was being sued and didn’t like the opposing counsel or the judge so he left the court a bunch of voicemails so profane that he was subject to a criminal contempt of court hearing.
Not me, but a colleague. A wealthy client’s son got picked up for dg dealing at a local music festival. The client bailed him out, and then had his whole fancy law firm defend his son.The son shambled into the courtroom stoned off his as, and loudly attempted to buy ds off the bailiff.There wasn’t a lot the lawyers could do after that.
Do we have any Pandas with a background in law here today? What’s the very worst client you’ve ever had to deal with? How can you tell if a client is someone you might not want to work with?
Not a lawyer, heard this story from a guy I used to work with. His brother in law got injured at work and was suing for a hefty sum. Case was pretty much open and shut, all the evidence was in the BIL’s favor… Until the BIL started talking. They ask him to tell them about the day of the accident. BIL started out fine until he gets to the where he approached the piece of equipment that injured him. He tell everyone that there was a note on it stating that it was out of order. BIL then says that he discarded the note and started up the piece of malfunctioning equipment as he had a job to get done…That easy win was discarded faster than that out of order sign.
Friend of mine used to be a latent print analyst. Going to get prints of a suspect arrested for breaking into a home to rob it. While she’s getting the ink and paper set up, suspect shouts, “whaddya need the prints for? She looked right at me when I kicked in the door!”.
Not a lawyer, but I was in a courtroom watching injunctions (restraining orders) play out.One case the woman was there, but the man was in prison so he was calling in. After deciding on an agreement, the guy asked if he could make a statement. At the end of his statement, he said “and tell {the woman} to go fk herself.“He got an additional 6 months of prison. The guy asked to make another statement after getting a tongue lashing from the judge.And he did it again - telling her to go fk herself. And got another 6 months.Imagine losing a year of your life because you couldn’t shut up for 5 minutes.
I was a 3L student in school’s family law clinic. We had one of those custody cases that just would not die. The husband remarried, and step-mom did not want bio-mom to exist in their happy family and dragged this mom to court for the smallest things to try and get full custody instead of 50/50 of her “spirit son.” We were in court every other month just for this case. The court never budged on custody. Eventually, step-mom decided us meddling kids were the only thing keeping her from her “spirit son.” Step-mom called the law school and made a complaint against my team accusing us of doing really horrible stuff to the child and threatening them. They then demanded we be expelled or the university would be sued. We filed an emergency hearing and told the judge everything and asked for sanctions and argued harassment. Judge found the couple in contempt for threatening us to sway the case. The judge then said he questioned their ability to effectively co-parent and act in the child’s best interests. Mom was given primary custody, and they got every other weekend and some holidays. The judge also decided that given the couple’s history, they were harassing the mom using the court and banned them from further custody filings. Later we found out the couple also filed a bar complaint against our professor too. That was investigated and found without merit.
IANAL, but had a case against a totally insane neighbor that built a fence on my property. He had a court order to move it and only moved it about 3 inches. It was supposed to move about 6 feet. Up on the stand, judge said “You will move the fence to the correct place within 7 days or we’ll find you in contempt of court. The rest of the charges will depend on your cooperation.” (He was up for a few other things as well.)He said under his breath “I’m not moving that fence again.“You should have seen that judge’s head snap up. “What was that?!??““Nothing.“He was found in contempt that day, had to pay a fine and was doing weekend jail for a month. He also lost all the other cases.
Paralegal. Once had a convicted criminal explain to me how their murder charge should be overturned because the victim didn’t die at the scene of the crime. The victim died at the hospital, therefore the defendant couldn’t be charged with anything more than attempted murder.
NAL - I was a legal clerk for a couple years in college. Still baffles me how this one made it all the way to trial. Lady slipped & fell at a chain restaurant, “hurt” her back irreparably, wanted a huge payout. Said she slipped on butter that was on the floor. On cross exam she was asked what type of butter, answer “the little pats of butter they put out in the buffet.” Defense immediately re-called the store manager…. The store had never used that type of butter. Case ended pretty quickly. Lol.
NAL but watched as a girl in her early 20’s giggled her way through sentencing on a petty theft charge.Instead of the same 30-day suspended sentence her remorseful looking co-defendant received, she got 90 days in county jail.She wasn’t giggling after that.
NAL - my dad’s psychotic ex-girlfriend was trying to press bogus charges on my dad, in general trying to ruin his life and career. And his family - she attempted to make some things up about me, too. Had to go through interviews, detective’s office talks, APS visits. My dad and I filed protective orders. Her response to the POs, and I was afraid it would happen, was to vandalize a part of his property in a very gross and obscene way. She also went back to the detective to make another claim on me, saying I stole her non-prescribed ds, so basically admitting she had illegal d**s. So she got a bit more than just protective orders against her; she had jail time, now, too. Good riddance!
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What a question! How much time do you have? I have hundreds of stories of clients making dumb decisions!One particular client that comes to mind is a guy who committed a spree of burglaries… while on electronic monitoring for another case. The State brought a list of his coordinates to his bond hearing. I actually made the argument that he is clearly not a flight risk, since he actually kept his monitor on, and that the Court should release him on the same terms as his other case. The Judge looked at me like a crazy person and held my client without bond.
It was a credit card fraud case in the early part of my career. He actually wore the stolen clothes to court and a clerk at the defrauded store identified them in front of the jury. I felt like the guy in the commercial that asks “want to be somewhere else?”.
A friend was doing the workman’s comp as well as suing the company for a few million. Could not bend over, raise his arms, plus everything he could think of.Taking the stand, using a cane. Lawyer ask him to read the highlighted parts from the local paper. A week before he had won a Marshall arts tournament.Can you explain that? Next fifteen minutes he explained each kick, punch etc with a big smile. I rest my case. Jury Forman ask the judge if they had to leave the room or could they just announce the verdict.
Assault case, when the witness took the stand, self represented defendant screams: “this witness is going to lie, there’s no way he could have seen it, he wasn’t around when I punched (the victim)”.
Not an attorney, but one client of ours baffles me to this day. He had multiple cases, including aggravated battery and d**g possession, At the insistence of dude’s family, we moved heaven and earth getting him a bond, so that he could get out of jail and live with said family until the case was over. The whole process took weeks.Less than a day after getting out, he was caught stealing $16 worth of batteries from Target. Bond revoked. To be fair, the line between stupidity and compulsion is blurred with this one.EDIT: For anyone who’s curious, we immediately ordered a psych eval for him. He was found competent, but it also confirmed what he had mental health issues. The Agg. Batt. charge ended up being dropped, and he took a plea for time served.
Client added 9 years to a short sentence. He got like a year or 2 for being involved in a drag race that the other guy crashed and severely injured someone else. Then towards the end of his short prison term he tried to escape, got 9 more years for prison escape! He became friends with John Lennon’s killer in NY prison, which was interesting.
I was at court once fighting a traffic ticket and a guys lawyer was pleading no contest to a charge he got for having a fire arm on probation. It sounded like he was getting more probation and it would be done with that, then the judge says “do you have anything to say before we move forward” and the guy says “I didn’t know having a gun was against the rules. And I had a gun so I guess that makes me GUILTY”. Smiled like he just stuck it to the man, the look on the lawyer and judges face were of so much disappointment.
Client returns to court drunk after luncheon adjournment. Falls asleep, and his head drops right into the side of the witness box, whereupon he proceeds to snore. Loudly.
Pro bono VAWA case. Should have been a straightforward petition. Ran a FOIA search on the client before the final submission just in case. Turns out she had been deported from Guam and then while her immigration ban was still in place she entered the mainland US without status (= permanently ineligible for adjustment). When I asked why she had not disclosed this during intake, her response was: “Oh, I thought Guam was its own country and not part of the US, so it wouldn’t matter.” .
Not in the US, but the judge asked if the defendant was remorseful (if you show regrets, you can have some leniency).“No”.The guy didn’t understand the question, and when he doesn’t, he just usually says “no”.
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I am a lawyer. I was cross examining a slip and fall plaintiff on the stand in trial after like two years of litigation. We were going over some pictures he took when he let slip that the “picture of the two signs” was missing. I grilled him on what he meant until the judge chastised me for trying to conduct discovery during trial, which is supposedly not allowed (he had clearly concealed evidence though).We took a break for the day, and the next day he came back with the photo in question, which showed that he had walked squarely between two wet floor signs to go down the Kroger aisle that he immediately slipped and fell in.He did not recover any money in that one, despite the horrific defense venue. The judge who jumped all over me for exploring obvious evidence tampering was later appointed to the federal bench here in Atlanta. .
NAL but used to investigate RTAs and similar claims. The amount of “passengers” who couldn’t provide the most basic details of the RTAs they were supposedly involved in was a phenomenal thing to behold.I recall one incident where (ostensibly) there were four people in the car (brothers, sister and mother). The brothers (driver and front seat passenger) were able to “recall” the key details. But the mother and sister couldn’t offer any compelling evidence that they were in the car. They “‘couldn’t remember” where they were sat, what time of day it was, what the weather was, where they were coming from or going to, where the impact came from, what the other vehicle looked like (colour / type / manufacturer…) what happened afterwards, whether the emergency services attended…We always tried to be sympathetic to the fallibility of memory. But there is a limit.Unrelated advice; if you are ever planning to fake a claim, maybe have a sit down with all participants and agree the key details in advance. Just the basics, at least.
I’m not a lawyer but the local news ran a clip over and over from a murder trial where the defendant took the stand against their lawyers advice, the defense was claiming self defense. As the prosecution read transcripts from damning jail phone calls the guy on trial (not his lawyer) called for an objection. It through everyone for a loop, the judge asked him why he called for an objection dude was honest and said I didn’t know they’d actually listen to my calls. A recess was granted and dude took a plea deal when court resumed .
Am criminal defense lawyer. Client arrested on DUI. Client lived in small town. He and his wife would drive to the one bar in town, drink, then walk to their houseboat after a night at the bar (1/4 mile away). He and wife know everyone in the bar, another patron they know gets blasted, bar owner says she can’t stay, client and wife walk her to his car to stay there until ride comes.Client gets her in backseat of the suv. Client is drunk, drops keys on the way to front seat, opens now unlocked front door, turns on car lights to see (he walked around the front from rear passenger), cops are waiting to see if people leave bar drunk, sees lights, says he saw driving, immediately rolled up arrests client.Client has prior dui from 12ish years before. Judge agreed that it wouldn’t come in, jury wouldn’t hear it unless he “opened the door.” Can’t win the case unless dude testifies. I prep him, continue to prep him, keep prepping him, but tell him under NO CIRCUMSTANCES can he say he would never drive drunk, never do anything like that. Basically anything about the past = no.Direct is going well, gave him a beautiful, easy, last question where he could explain the night, explain why he was upset he got arrested (because he wasn’t driving and was doing everything right).“I would never do something like that.” Door open, judge lets da in rebuttal bring in old dui. Jury took about 25 minutes to convict.And that’s about one of a hundred stories. Life is never dull in the criminal defense world.
Not my client, but defendant posted a Facebook status along the lines of that he had “taken care of business and the world is a better place because of it”. He was charged with battery after putting someone in the hospital that had attacked his 14 year old daughter. The person didn’t have a clear memory of the incident and other testimony later revealed the person beat up had an alibi for the attack in question. Most likely the girl had made up the story to avoid trouble from being out drinking underage, though we never got the full story. Anyways the dad was sentenced to 4 years in federal prison.
“Is my client a perfect man? No.”-“I mean, I killed him, yeah”.
My father is a patent attorney, and when I was around 14 he told me about a guy who wanted to patent the IPhone 3 because “aliens” had given him the design for it. My father told him that if the aliens originally designed then they were the ones that had to patent it, not him.
Briefly: he had to testify that doing X thing would not cost him a lot of moneyThe judge asked him how much money would it cost for him and he said an amount which was not too much for him (because he was rich) but it was a lot compared to what everybody in the courtroom was making!Other case:The day before the court I tell him exactly what he is going to answer to certain questions. I specifically tell him to answer X when asked. Time comes, judge asks, he completely loses it, he gets a panic attack…he can’t even speak a single word! He just looks at the judge with the 1000 yard stare. Disaster.
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Evelina Šiukšterytė
Gabija Saveiskyte
Simona Kinderytė
Funny
