Small Law Firms, Solo Practitioners

If You’re Not Getting Paid, You’re Getting Played: 3 Signs Your Potential Client Is A Moocher

There's no surefire way to know if a caller is a moocher -- but look out for these red flags, according to columnist Shannon Achimalbe.

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I want to share a problem I commonly see with new attorneys starting a solo practice: coddling the tire kicker. For those who have practiced for a while, they know how to deal with them. But this problem arises because most new solo practitioners have little to no business sense – especially those who are forced into it – and have to learn the hard way.

You receive a call from a potential client. Over the phone, he is friendly and the two of you quickly establish a rapport. So being the nice guy that you are, you provide the potential client a free consultation and quote him a price for your services.

He thanks you for your help and says that he respects your time as a lawyer. But he asks if can meet you again over lunch to discuss his case and clarify a few things. He offered to pay for lunch at one of the nicer restaurants in town. You agree on the condition that he signs the attorney-client contract after the meal. Being the nice guy that you are, you order the second least expensive dish in the menu and a glass of water. During lunch, the two of you discuss his case at length, even giving him some very detailed advice that could solve his problems. After lunch, he says he trusts your judgment but insists on taking the attorney-client contract home to review before he signs and sends you the money.

The potential client does not call back. When you call to follow up, he says he is still reviewing the contract but wants to ask you if a certain law may apply favorably to his case. You sense from his tone of voice that he was not as enthusiastic as before. You are not feeling as nice as you did before and want to demand payment. But you don’t want to anger him and risk him leaving you for someone else, especially after all of the time you invested and free advice you gave him. So you answer his question but you insist on payment before you continue. He agrees and profusely apologizes for taking up your time.

You wait for his call but he never calls back. Some time later, you give up, get upset and wonder what went wrong. Why didn’t he hire you even though the two of you got along so well?

Here is the answer: You didn’t get paid because you got played.

Potential clients know they have a choice. Thanks to the glut of attorneys, there are hundreds of attorney advertisements on the media and the internet. He may have even received several referrals. So they call each one until they find someone who will answer their questions without charging a fee.

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To be fair, some potential clients may not know that they are playing you. This is because new attorneys give clients too much free information before asking for payment. But I partly blame this on many attorney advertisements offering free consultations. When potential clients think free consultations, they think that it means the attorney will solve their case for free. To fix this, I think lawyers should stop using free consultation on their advertisements and replace it with free case review.

A self-employed attorney who has been in business for a number of years can sense a tire-kicker within the first few minutes of a phone call. They will graciously tell these moochers to beat it and take their faux-business with them. New attorneys either don’t or will give a lot of leeway and end up getting played for two reasons.

First, they’re new, hungry and desperate for clients. They talk to clients at length because they have nothing else to do.

Second, they are naive. They think that every potential client is a good person and will pay on time, every time. They think that they are just driving a hard bargain. They do not understand that most potential clients calling out of the blue are seeking to milk as much free information from attorneys as possible. It will take hours of unproductive phone calls, several missed appointments, fee disputes and possibly a bar complaint before new attorneys figure this out.

So is there a surefire way to know if a caller is a moocher? Of course not. Every caller is different. With experience and learning some harsh truths about human nature, it will be easier to tell who is playing you. But usually, these are some warning signs:

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1. The caller’s first question is, “Do you offer free consultations?” or “How much do you charge?” This suggests that fees are the primary thing on the client’s mind.

2. At some point in the conversation, the caller says, “I’ve been talking to a few people about my problem…” If you were the third, fifth or 99th attorney the client called, this raises multiple red flags. But in the context of getting paid, the caller may be shopping around to see who charges the lowest fee.

3. The client continually reminds you about how broke he is. In some cases, potential clients contact attorneys because they are in a financially dire situation. But when they use that as an excuse for being unable to pay your fees, then you should politely tell them to contact someone else.

I understand that it’s hard to turn down a potential client who can’t afford to pay you. It seems morally wrong to do so. You hear anecdotal stories and countless humblebrags bar magazine articles about an attorney helping a client for free who later referred the multi-million dollar client. Because as you know, wealthy people love to associate with those with legal and financial problems, right? In reality, these karma moments are rare, which is why they are featured feel-good stories.

But sooner or later, new attorneys will have to learn to tell clients to pay up or shut up. It gets easier with time. You might miss a good client or two but you will also avoid countless headaches later. So get paid or get played.

Shannon Achimalbe was a former solo practitioner for five years before deciding to sell out and get back on the corporate ladder. Shannon can be reached by email at sachimalbe@excite.com and via Twitter: @ShanonAchimalbe.

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