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    Be A Smart Client: Guide To A Successful Relationship With Your Attorney
    Be A Smart Client: Guide To A Successful Relationship With Your Attorney
    Be A Smart Client: Guide To A Successful Relationship With Your Attorney
    Ebook75 pages37 minutes

    Be A Smart Client: Guide To A Successful Relationship With Your Attorney

    By Ellen L. Hughes

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    About this ebook

    Thinking of hiring a lawyer? Read this book first. Learn what to discuss and agree upon before hiring a lawyer. Corporations dictate how billing, communication and paperwork will be handled by their legal counsel; small business owners and individuals need to follow suit. Most people don't realize they have this option but Hughes does because she worked as a paralegal for 20 years with dozens attorneys and their clients. She knows what questions to ask and what actions to take. This book discloses secrets that will help your case. You will learn how to deal effectively with attorneys.

    In today's society, chances are you will need a lawyer. When that day comes, be ready. Be prepared. Know what to expect.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherEllen L. Hughes
    Release dateFeb 3, 2016
    ISBN9781311989741
    Be A Smart Client: Guide To A Successful Relationship With Your Attorney
    Author

    Ellen L. Hughes

    Ellen L. Hughes is CEO of The McKee Company. The purpose of The McKee Company is to make life easier. We create tools that help build confidence in specific areas and life events. Whether in the form of a book, software or other type of medium, the focus is always to give you the means to find what you need, easily and quickly.When The McKee Company – An Idea Company – was launched in 1994, the first project was to organize government auctions. Each agency was researched and the information was organized logically, creating the Government Auctions/Sales Manual. Reader’s Digest, Kiplinger, and several other national and trade magazines endorsed it.The second undertaking was to create a tool to help business owners easily organize their businesses so they could turn their attention to growing their companies. We developed an easy-to-use software template which can be personalized to any size of company, any type of industry. The Office Wizard was reviewed in the Denver Business Journal and Rocky Mountain News. It is available here.Next on the agenda was a way to simplify the overwhelming methods of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). It was decided to categorize them by the associated illness. The result was Adventures With Natural Healing. It is a manual that gives history, uses, basic instruction, tools, licensing and personal experience for 27 CAM methods. A full index makes it easy to find health issues and which methods to use on each one. It offers simple techniques you can use on yourself, by yourself.The latest book, How To Train A Lawyer - The Client Handbook, addresses how to deal with lawyers. With the current overabundance of attorneys, there are many unprofessional and unprincipled people practicing law. People need to know how to successfully navigate their way through a lawsuit, protect themselves, and know what to expect and request from their attorney.There are several other, less well-known, but equally valuable publications available. Dental Heaven gives people an alternative to high-priced American dental work. Home Office Handbook takes you step-by-step in setting up an home office. Check out the many books by The McKee Company. They are all designed to help people seeking specific answers.

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      Book preview

      Be A Smart Client - Ellen L. Hughes

      BE A SMART CLIENT

      The Client Handbook

      Published By Ellen L. Hughes

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright 2015 Ellen L. Hughes

      CONTENTS

      1. CHOOSING AN ATTORNEY

      2. THE INITIAL APPOINMENT

      3. THE HIRING PROCESS

      4. WORK WITH AN ATTORNEY

      5. ENDING THE RELATIONSHIP

      6. TO DO LIST

      7. THE BASICS

      8. RESEARCH OPTIONS

      9. PERSONAL SELF CARE

      LEGAL TERMS

      ABOUT THE AUTHOR

      DISCOVER OTHER TITLES BY ELLEN L. HUGHES

      ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

      The impetus for this book was my own personal injury which eventually morphed into this how-to book for people dealing with attorneys. Several people helped me through my recovery period and this book is dedicated to them.

      Don, Susie and Donnie, Lori and Chris and Sissy and Mary, Christopher, Anna Lee, Meg, Bruce and Bonnie, Stevie, Uncle Clif, Aunt Evelyn and Uncle Carroll and Rags, the health providers at Denver Health and Hospitals, Swedish Medical Center and University of Colorado.

      I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the big guy in the sky. Thank you, God. Sorry for yelling at you so much, but I figured you could take it.

      Ellen

      PREFACE

      A judge once said my father was so honest that he wouldn't even pick a nickel up off the street. My father was a lawyer. So was my uncle, my brother and my best friend's father. I grew up surrounded by decent, hard-working attorneys.

      My career as a paralegal and legal assistant spanned 20+ years working with lawyers who treated clients with respect and clients reciprocated in kind. It was a good relationship. You might say I wore rose-colored glasses when it came to lawyers. In 2011 the glasses came off.

      That year I suffered a major injury due to another person’s negligence. In my quest for justice, I encountered incompetent, unprofessional, rude, bungling lawyers who made a bad situation worse.

      Throughout this journey, I met people who related accounts of how they, too, had suffered at the hands of a lawyer; they told stories of intimidation and manipulation. A common phrase echoed by many was, I thought there was something wrong with me.

      This opened my eyes. While I had spent years surrounded by honest lawyers, another faction had been growing; an unprincipled group more interested in feeding their ego and lining their pockets than in helping clients. Add the constant barrage of advertisements and it has become hard to tell the good attorneys from the bad.

      People need to know which questions to ask when looking for an attorney. They need to grasp what to expect and request throughout the attorney/client relationship. Whereas most books in the legal field are written about law, Be A Smart Client is a book written about lawyers. It offers insight and logical, easy steps to build client confidence to help them deal effectively with lawyers.

      1. CHOOSING AN ATTORNEY

      1. Picking the right lawyer*

      The most important thing is to hire an attorney who meets your legal and personal requirements. Ads on TV, radio, billboards and busses are good places to look for a restaurant, but not for an attorney. Advertising only proves the attorney has money to pay for it; not if they are the right attorney for you. Ask friends, family, and colleagues for referrals. Check with the local bar association; they may know attorneys who charge on a sliding

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