What to do if your attorney says, “We don’t do that, we won’t sign anything.”

March 9, 2008

This happens to my clients about once a quarter. They will find me on craigslist and so we do the application, I fax a document request to the attorney, they respond and send me the documents, then we get approved and now it is time for the attorney and client to sign the contract and the attorney starts to block this from happening.

The client get infuriated with their attorney becuase they are about to be evicted, lights are getting turned off, etc and they don’t know what to do.

The first thing you ask your attorney is “why?”. Do NOT accept the answer of “we just don’t do it”. That is not an answer, it is a put-off. Try and understand where the attorney is coming from. Maybe they had a client in the past get totally ripped off by an expensive company and they don’t want that to happen to you. But would’nt the solution to that be to research the company and their rates WHICH ARE ON THE CONTRACT?

Try and find out from them if they think the case is too small to do an advance or if they don’t think they can settle for what you would need to get an advance.

If they tell you that they can’t help you get an advance, depending on the state, that is not true. Here is where you can find out what the bar has to say about it in each state: http://www.lawfunder.com/ethics.htm.

I have also heard of some attorneys saying they cannot sign a “letter of protection” for these types of transactions. well, there are two ways to approach this: One, the attorney is using a word that has no written dictionary definition. I have a Black’s Law Dictionary (also found at www.blacklawdictionary.com) and that word doesn’t exist. Two, the attorney is asked to “acknowledge” that there is a lien not guarantee the funds using a letter of protection.

If after trying to communicate with your attorney you still are getting nowhere and they are trying to block you from improving your conditions in life by getting a lawsuit cash advance, you should get a new attorney unless your case is settling within a month and you will have your funds then.

My position is you do not have to accept that. You have the right to fire them at any time. You hired them to help you. You are not asking them to do anything illegal, immoral or unethical so it is insane that they would try and block you from surviving better.

If you are in Tampa, Clearwater, St. Petersburg, Sarasota, Bradenton, or Dallas and you need a referral, just call me and I will give you a referral of an attorney who will not block you from doing this.

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