Lawyers Expose The Worst Clients They’ve Ever Had
While lawyers are supposed to be as impartial towards their clients as possible, besides handling their case, there are some clients who just stand out as being terrible.
Maybe they weren’t listening to their lawyers, speaking out when they weren’t supposed to in court, or even threatening their counsel.
From confessing they were never going to pay their lawyers to lying about their cases, follow along as these lawyers expose their nightmare clients.
1. Worse Than Just Back Luck
Someone I know was offered many thousands of dollars to represent a dealer who has been recently captured. He refused, and a colleague took on the offer, calling my acquaintance stupid for rejecting that kind of money. Well...
the trial hadn't even begun when the lawyer who took on the offer had to leave the country with the youngest of her kids.
Her husband, the other two of their kids, and her parents were supposed to meet her a few days later. A pure horror story ensued. They were ALL offed by a rival cartel. YOU DO NOT MESS WITH MEXICAN CARTELS.
2. Over And Over Again
One time, I was appointed to represent a guy who was having a trial for adjudication in a dependency case.
He wasn’t at fault for the removal of his children and was so incredibly angry that he had to be party to the case, even though it’s the law. So, he’s yelled at me for several weeks about this and I’ve simply said “
I can’t do anything about it man, it’s the law.”
He threatens to fire me and I say, “Go for it.” He rescinds. Repeat. This happens a few times. So we get to court and the judge comes in and says, “Any issues to go over before we start?” My guy stands up and says the dumbest thing ever: “I want to fire my lawyer because he’s not gonna help me!” The judge looks at me and asks if that’s true and I said, “No, Mr. X is angry that he’s a party to this case because Ms. X is the offender. He doesn’t believe me when I say that it’s simply the law.”
The judge asks him and he agrees and says he doesn’t think he can trust me to represent his interests. So the judge lets me go, I close my folio and hand him the file, ask to be withdrawn, it’s granted, and I turn and head for the door.
As I’m walking out, the judge says, “Ok Mr. X, who’s your first witness?”
Mr. X gets mad and yells about needing an attorney to which the judge replies, “You’re allowed appointed counsel and you fired him, we’re still going forward. Who’s the first witness?” I couldn’t see it but I knew that I was smiling in 5D. But that wasn't the last time I saw him. Two or three years later, while representing another hapless soul in a case to end her rights and waiting for a judge to enter to begin her trial, I spotted this guy in the audience waving at my client.
As it turns out, he had befriended her and fed her the same strategy, which she then applied to her case and which turned out exactly the same. She then came to me a week later in my office complaining about me just allowing her to make that mistake.
The audacity of some people is astonishing. I just told her to get out because I wasn’t her lawyer anymore.
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3. Made It Easy For Them
A friend of mine was defending a guy in court. I don't remember what he was charged with. The main witness for the prosecution was on the stand and was asked if she could identify the defendant. She was scanning the courtroom and seemed confused.
My friend was already silently celebrating because if she couldn't identify him, he could probably get all charges dropped.
As he was mentally adding this case to the 'win' file, he happened to glance over at his client—and his jaw literally DROPPED. His client had just helpfully raised his hand to make it easier for her to identify him. Even the judge facepalmed on that one.
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4. Don’t Talk About It
I’m a New York City defense attorney here. All inmate phone calls at the city lock-up, Rikers Island, are recorded.
I remind my clients on a regular basis that somebody is listening to all their calls, and that they should never discuss the case or call anyone related to the case from lock-up.
I had a client who was charged with stalking and harassing an ex-girlfriend.
The thing about these charges was that this was the first and last time I had seen a legitimate case of double jeopardy with the defendant being charged with the same thing twice. The defendant had already pleaded guilty and done a small amount of time in lock up for the same incidents. I walked into court on our first appearance supremely confident that my client would be walking out of court a free man. But there was a surprise in store for me.
Turns out, there was a second indictment charging him with new offenses. My genius client had called his ex-girlfriend, and the DA had recordings of him threatening to beat her if she came to court to testify against him.
We took a plea right there and he served three years for witness tampering and contempt. If my client had only listened to my advice and let me do my job, he would have gone home three years earlier than he did.
