Unleashed | Trouble in reception

The client was not happy. Indeed, that is an understatement. He was extremely upset, distraught and rather resembling one of those bulls you see in a cartoon with head down, horns on the attack and two streams of air pouring forth from each nostril.

It was that age old problem: the client had come in to reception without an appointment and felt that he deserved to be seen. Unfortunately the solicitors that were qualified to see him were with other clients. The receptionist very charmingly explained all this but it only made him angrier. His voice changed from one of normal conversation to shouting really rather loudly, so much so that I was concerned that other clients would wonder what on earth was going on. I popped out to see if I could calm matters down but upon seeing me he got even angrier. He kept on calling me a 'mother f****r' which seemed unfortunate as I was trying to resolve his difficulty.

Another solicitor came out to assist in the situation but the client was now in full flow, abusing, screaming and threatening to carry out unspeakable acts on both of us. I suggested he go away and come back when he had calmed down but this did not help at all. Indeed his anger ratcheted up a few notches. He started pointing his finger in my face and when his hand slipped into his pocket I had visions of a 12 inch bowie knife coming out and a trip to A&E. I whispered to the receptionist that it would probably be a good idea to inform the local police that we had somebody in reception who was not only causing difficulties, but could be armed and was threatening violence. In her panic the receptionist could not get through. Eventually she did using her mobile and miraculously (and within five minutes) three burly looking policemen arrived armed to the teeth with handcuffs, truncheons and probably one of those rather useful taser guns, which I began to think might be a vital piece of equipment that solicitors should have in their receptions in the future. Of course the client had calculated specifically how long it would take for the police to arrive and he had got it correct to the second, having run out of the office 30 seconds before the police did arrive.

In extremis

The police were quite happy to have been of assistance, took details of what had happened and insisted that we call them again should he return. An isolated incident you may ask? Not really. We are a legal aid practice and we deal with people who are coping with the very worst that life can throw at them. Quite often we are dealing with people who are sleeping on the streets, are watching their children being taken away by the Local Authority or who have their marriages silently falling to bits around them. These are people in extremis. They have nowhere to go but us. Sometimes when we cannot see them they vent their frustration upon us.

Some of you will be working in private practice, commercial practice and in-house. All of this will come as a complete shock to you as your clients will not have to be removed by the police from reception, but in legal aid practices this is something that does happen. On one occasion a client started assaulting a member of staff and not only did they have to be restrained by the police but the police, recognising that they could not restrain the client sufficiently, had to call an ambulance who sedated the client so that they could be taken to hospital.

Finding a solution

The life of a legal aid lawyer is not an easy one. We have to pick up the pieces and reconstruct people's lives, very often dealing with inarticulate, confused, vulnerable and sometimes mentally ill clients. It takes a considerable amount of skill to deal with such individuals. When dealing with a private client one often is faced with a precise bundle of papers, a carefully crafted statement and somebody who knows how to explain their problem to you. When dealing with legal aid clients it can be difficult to even know what the problem is and it takes all the craft, skill and intellect of a legal aid lawyer to focus on the problem and eventually find a solution.

So where during this commotion was Cosmo? You may ask why Cosmo did not take the bull by the horns and deal with the situation as only a large black labrador can. Dogs are however quite crafty. He knew there was no food on offer and he slunk away for a sleep under my desk.