Clients from hell

The events some time ago in Cumbria may have brought home to people the fact that there are dangers implicit in being a solicitor. Every day people come to us who are emotionally charged, stressed, quite often at the end of their tether and sometimes very angry at what they perceive to be injustice.

At my end of the profession, the high street end, large numbers of clients come in to the office every day. Sometimes our reception area is very busy indeed. Clients who have been the victims of domestic violence, homeless people who have been told they will not be housed by the local authority and people under threat of eviction. There are also those that feel a deep sense of injustice about an inheritance they have not received or by virtue of the fact that a parent may have disinherited them or given a large part ofthe family fortune to a donkey sanctuary. Others are frustrated that they do not qualify for legal aid and do not have the means to pay for legal advice.

Most of these clients receive the advice we give them gratefully but some can vent their frustration on the solicitor. Dealing with mentally ill, vulnerable clients and people whose first language is not English is a difficult business. It is a skill for which the high street solicitor receives no training and we have to largely pick it up as we go along.

A few years ago, a quite large gentleman picked up a chair in reception and was threatening to hit it over the head of one of my junior solicitors if she did not succeed in re-housing him with the local authority. There was another incident when a client attacked a solicitor with her handbag, drawing blood '“ she needed to be taken away by the police and sedated.

Only the lonely

At the heart of the problem is the fact that clients in extremis have no one to turn to except their solicitor. We are expected to provide the solutions and to be on call 24 hours a day. It often intrigues me when I look at my BlackBerry to see that people are emailing me requests for advice at 2am. Perhaps there was a time when people had other people to turn to: social workers, vicars and family members. These days clients often tell me that they simply have no one to talk to about their problems. They feel neglected and alone.

Often, allowing the client to talk defuses a tense situation. I have learned that when somebody comes in spitting nails and looking grim it is always a good idea to let them have their say for 30 minutes before even attempting to put our own spin on their situation. Certainly having someone to talk to is an enormous help. When that person is not only sympathetic but also able to help, that's a bonus.

The lack of training in relation to handling difficult clients is a problem. This is something that should be addressed and consideration should be given for some form of mandatory training during the Compulsory Skills Course.

Dog days

Clients can of course be dangerous in other ways. One client lived in dreadfully dilapidated premises. She would delight in sending us boxes containing bed bugs, cockroaches, dead mice and dead rats. The little packages were not so much of a worry '“ we know the matchbox always had the bed bugs or ants '“ but as soon as we saw the dreaded shoe box arrive through the post we always knew thatit contained a dead rat. She perceived it important to collect this detritus in support of her case. We were not so keen on keeping the exhibits.

More topically, clients can get involved in naming and shaming solicitors on sites such as Solicitors from Hell, or in other situations clients put up their own dedicated website in honour of a solicitor that has crossed their path and who they do not agree with. Before the days of the internet, I know of at least one client who published a newsletter which he distributed to local shops, pointing out exactly how bad his ex-wife's solicitors were. One can only anticipate that they had done an extremely good job indeed to make him so upset.

In these days of 24-hour access, one of the other difficulties is that clients expect you to be there at all times. The days of 9am to 5pm are long gone. Clients expect you to be on the end of a phone and on the end of a BlackBerry all the hours that god sends. For that very reason I am now much more cautious about releasing my home telephone number, having been called at least once on Christmas morning and asked to give advice on a consumer credit difficulty.

The job of a solicitor is not an easy one. Nevertheless, it is made that little bit easier by having a dog in the office. Not for personal protection, as I am sure Cosmo would lick any attacker on the face rather than defend me, but it does 'humanise' a sometimes difficult place and put a smile on the face of a customer.

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