1. When asked to provide documents, provide them all, and organize them by date and type. If you can, scan them (in order, please - otherwise, we have to print them all out, organize and scan them again). If you can't, please make two copies, one for your lawyer and one for the other side. If you are not providing something, tell your attorney what you couldn't provide, why and when you expect to have it.
2. When faced with responding to interrogatories, answer the questions fully and provide them to your attorney electronically.
3. If your lawyer asks for something by a given time, they mean they need it in time to review it, edit it, make sure it is complete, and provide it to the other side in the time limit provided. When you don't give us what we ask in the time requested, we have to spend time (and your money) nagging you for it, and responding to the other side's demands for the items, orally, in letters and more formally in court pleadings. In the meantime, resolving your case takes the back seat.
4. We like you, but we are not your friends and not your therapists. Your friends will listen to you for hours for free - they may not help make it better, but you know someone is listening. Your therapist charges less than we do per hour, and is trained to help you work out your emotional issues. Your lawyer needs to know the emotional background of your legal dispute so they can understand the barriers to your resolving the dispute, what you need to move forward, and the underlying emotions and interactions that created the dispute in the first place. Don't call us just to chat while your case is still active. Oh, and by the way, your friends are not lawyers. Police officers are not lawyers. Your therapist is not a lawyer. Don't take legal advice from them. When you do, it takes us time to undo their damage.
5. Keep a list of your questions. When you think you have enough questions to fill a billing increment, ask them. Don't call or email every time you have a question - each answer is a minimum billing increment. The list of 5 questions takes the same amount of time to answer as your one question during five separate communications.
6. Do your homework. If your attorney does all the work and the thinking in mediation and before trial, it will cost you more. It's your life; think deeply about what you need to move forward in it.
7. Avoid all or nothing thinking. Very few things in life are black and white. There are a lot of shades of gray. Determine how much grey you find acceptable. In other words, figure out what you can compromise and what is non-negotiable. Then communicate it to your lawyer.
8. Read all legal documents thoroughly. That includes the letters your lawyer sends you. Then read them two more times. If you still don't understand them, call your lawyer and ask for help. If you still don't agree with parts of them, tell your lawyer what you don't agree with, why, and what would be more acceptable. You'd be amazed at how much lawyer time you can save by just reading the documents.
9. Do your research. If your attorney asks you to look into a specific issue like housing, school districts or budgetary items, there is a reason for the request. Do it when we ask and do it like your future life depends on it, because it does. If you don't do it, we have to.
10. If you are giving us witnesses, for heaven's sake, talk to the people whose names you give us before we call them. Ask them if they will talk to us. Ask them if they will testify. Tell them we will be calling. Giving us a list of people who don't want to be involved and don't want to talk to us simply wastes everyone's time and costs you money because we will call all the people on the list.
11. I know, I said there were 10, but here's number 11. Don't lie to us. Hiding the truth or lying is kind of like throwing the second punch: the one who throws it usually is the one who gets caught. It takes an amazing amount of time and effort to undo the damage caused by one little lie. You'll know how much when you get our bill.
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