Late last week, the lawyer's office called my wife. The assistant conveyed to my wife the lawyer's question, "do you want to settle for a 50-50" in the traffic accident claim. To which my wife replied, "No". "Then you will need to come down to the lawyer's office, because our lawyer needs to speak with you", came the reply.
This call came some 7 months after the traffic accident that my wife had the misfortune to encounter with a huge truck/ lorry while on her way to fetch my daughter along Bukit Timah. Silence for 7 full months, then a call to ask the client to "settle". What a way to earn their fees, probably wrote one letter to the other party, waited for the response, and ask the client to settle? I thought, surely they must have done more, and wife will do well to find out more by meeting the lawyer.
My wife turned up at the lawyer's office today.
The lawyer looked at my wife and the first sentence that he uttered was "I think you better settle for 50-50"!
When asked why, he said that based on the reply from the other driver, he said that because there are no witnesses, it will be very difficult to prove my wife's version of how the accident happened. Then he said, "only God knows whether you are telling the truth!" To which, the only correct reply should have been "only God knows why you are a lawyer!"
He went on to try to "scare" my wife into accepting the 50-50 settlement. He said that if she were to reject the 50-50 settlement, the case will have to go to mitigation/ court and whatever the outcome my wife would have to be responsible for his fees of $2500! The keyword emphasised was "whatever the outcome". Of course, he went on to say that "for heaven sake, this is just a road traffic accident claim, I have 1600 other cases, and you want to pursue this case?!"
I am glad my wife gave the only correct answer, "what's the point you are trying to make?"
All these prompted my question, "what do lawyers really do?"
(1) Nothing that he said or shown my wife at his office has shown that he has gone beyond the information and forms that we have completed as part of insurance claim.
(2) Based on his words and behavior, he has already given up "fighting" for the case - although I am not even convinced that he even attempted to try.
(3) Nothing that he will say during mitigation/ court hearing will be any attempt to argue the case for his client. In fact, he discredited his client by asserting without evidence that my wife had lied about the facts of the accident by his statement "only God will know whether you are telling the truth."
(4) Why should he as the lawyer be paid regardless of his effort and outcome?
My conclusion is that he has done nothing for his client (my wife) and come to think about it, we did not even appoint him as our lawyer, maybe he was signed up by the insurance company.
So, it begs the question: what does he as a lawyer really do (looks like nothing)? With his behavior and performance ANY client with a sound mind and half a kidney could do a better job.
What IS the role of a lawyer in such situations?
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