There’s REALLY no need to meet
Back in the olden days it was customary to meet with your attorney prior to beginning the attorney/client relationship. Those were special days, but times have changed a lot and, at the risk of being too blunt, meetings are just a waste of time these days and really, really not necessary.
I know, I know. The past is really hard to let go of. I still love my 90s music. I like having a hard drive I can put my hands on as opposed to working “from the cloud.” I write checks! In some ways, old ways are good and still relevant. But I’m here to tell you: There is almost never a really compelling reason for us to meet in order for me to handle your auto accident injury claim.
I’ve heard all of the reasons for insisting on a meeting. Please allow me to briefly refute them below:
- I’m a real person. You don’t need to touch me for me to prove that to you. Contact the NC State Bar and ask if I’m current with my Bar dues. Ain’t no fake attorney paying Bar dues. I’m real.
- It’s just unreasonable to believe you’re going to trust me more after touching me. In fact, it’s a little creepy. If you don’t believe me when I tell you you can trust me, once again, check with the NC State Bar and see how many complaints there are about me. Also, check out my Google Reviews. I don’t know how to fake those, so to the extent you can trust anything on the internet, you can trust my Google Reviews.
- There’s a saying in the corporate world that, “That meeting could have been a phone call and that phone call could have been an email.” Exactly. Email is the BEST! If you have a question, email me. I can explain complex legal topics FAR better in writing, at my own leisure, in a way that can be easily digested, than in any other way available. Even better, it stays there FOREVER! You can go back and read it anytime you need to! And I can point back to it if you ask the same question again! I can do the same on the phone if you absolutely need to hear it (some people are auditory learners, so I get that) and ask immediate follow up questions. That’s fine. I’m happy to talk on the phone, too.
- Allow me to share a startling statistic with you: Nearly 30% of people who set up in-person meetings with me fail to show up. That may not seem like a big deal, but it is a HUGE waste of time for me. For the person requesting the meeting that fails to show, it’s nothing. They’re doing whatever it is that’s more important to them anyway. For me, it’s a great big time suck. I have to dress for a meeting (a GREAT inconvenience these days, let me tell you). Moreover, I have to set aside that time JUST for that person. I have to be at the office instead of working more conveniently from home. This guarantees about 30 minutes of wasted time on my part, and sometimes more depending on how long I wait. For a personal injury attorney that works on contingency fee, my time is difficult to value, but the latest estimate is that my work time is worth about $500/hour. So if you look at half of that, for EVERY no call/no show I lose about $250. Would you like to sign up to lose $250 three times out of every ten times that someone asks for a meeting? I bet you wouldn’t.
- Nowadays, if you REALLY want to see me, we can Zoom or whatever the nearest equivalent is. Meetings. But that’s just a phone call with extra complications, so just call me, please.
Look, I probably want to represent you or we wouldn’t have gotten this far in a conversation. But I’m telling you, we REALLY don’t need to meet in person. I can do everything I need to do for you remotely and I’ll probably do it faster and better if you leave me time to do it instead of insisting on a 19th Century way to do business. Let’s get to work, shall we?
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