When you have a real estate business or you are planning to buy a property, you will definitely need a real estate lawyer. But how do you know when it is times to let go of your current lawyer and change services?
Not all client-lawyer relationship work. Although it is a very rare phenomenon, clients do encounter problems with their attorneys and these are some of the things that you need your eyes to be wide open. The following are some hints that will tell you that you need to change your lawyer.
- Poor communication habits. For example, your calls are not returned after 48 hours, you seldom receive updates about the latest progress of your case, and your lawyer is not always around the office.
- Super unorganized. You have filled out similar forms notwithstanding the fact that you have filled it out already. Your lawyer can’t keep up with the schedule and you often end up late in your requirement submissions.
- Not serving your best interest. Your lawyer keeps on asking for court extensions without any reasonable qualifications. You’ve been receiving notices from courts that your time of filing have lapse and the other party is winning the case. Although you still have a chance to file for an appeal, your lawyer does not seem to be able to provide an explanation for the lapses and lack of time to take care of your case.
- Promised documents did not arrive on time or were not done at all. Your lawyer is too busy preparing other documents that are not yours or worse, he or she might have forgotten to prepare your business documents. Although lawyers can have paralegals to documents, there shouldn’t be any reason to delay documents.
- Conflict of interest. You just found out that your lawyer is a friend of the opposing party. The reason why the law prohibits lawyers to work with someone who has conflict in interest is to protect the client’s rights from potential prejudice.
- Having issues with your lawyer. Issues between clients and lawyers can be extremely varied. Say for example, you have had a small misunderstanding about hidden charges, petty quarrel about poor scheduling habits, carelessness, and delinquency.
- You have found someone better and cheaper. When your lawyer is too expensive causing you to struggle financially, it is time to look for cheaper alternative. It is important to note that lawyers also have their own pledge before the law to be reasonable when it comes to charges. Lawyers cannot simply ask for extravagant fees especially when their workload is too light.
These are just a few of the basic signs that you might need to change your real estate lawyer. At some point you need to accept that not all things can last forever. While you still have the chance to save yourself from a major downturn, do it now before everything can be too late.
