Lawyer Liu Wenguo: Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Laws from Shandong University. He has worked in a large state-owned enterprise and has been engaged in management affairs for nearly 20 years. Business expertise: criminal legal affairs, labor disputes, corporate legal affairs, work injury business agency and personal injury compensation cases.
Attorney Zhang Yongqiang: Bachelor of Law of Shandong University, business expertise: corporate legal affairs, contract legal affairs, bill disputes, transportation, medical care, school, work-related accident disputes, marriage and family disputes, labor disputes, criminal legal affairs.
The legal services provided by lawyers are intangible and cannot directly perceive the amount of labor and the value of labor. Clients have doubts about the lawyer’s work and cannot be trusted. The lawyer charges such a high fee for a few words and pens. Is it worth it? The client ignores the lawyer’s work for no reason, and thinks that the case is a natural result, so he won’t ask the lawyer to win the case. If the case is lost, he complains and slanders the work of the lawyer, and then he complains against the lawyer, even hesitating to go to court with his former agent. Lawyers feel wronged, their labors are not understood, let alone respect, and they cause troubles, so that they are tired of lawyers' business and irrational thinking about human nature.
Lawyer's labor is a kind of complicated labor, and lawyers have not tangibly fixed their labor products and then presented them to clients. Many problems are caused by this.
The following is roughly based on the process of communication between lawyers and clients in civil litigation business to talk about this experience and communicate with you.
1. Before accepting the order
Lawyers must first establish the awareness of tangible legal services provided by them. This awareness runs through the relationship between lawyers and clients. Starting from the contact between lawyers and clients, lawyers should make their services tangible.
Before formally accepting the commission, the method and content of mutual communication should be fixed. The lawyer must fill out the "Legal Consultation Registration Form", record in detail the client's relevant identity information, brief case information, the lawyer's main points of answering the client's legal questions, client opinions and contact information, and finally must let the client sign and print. On the one hand, this information can be processed and sorted and managed, which is valuable for future analysis of the market, opening up the source of cases, studying the effectiveness of the law, and statistics on case data; on the other hand, customers will feel a rigorous and responsible work style. Experience the formality and dignity of the lawyer's work, thereby increasing the client's sense of trust.
2. Accept the entrustment process
The lawyer should fill in all the blanks such as the registration form, commission contract, power of attorney letter, law firm letter and other documents in front of the client. After the client signs it, explain the content, function and legal meaning of these documents to the client clearly. . General law firms have a fixed format "Risk Notification Letter". In addition, after analyzing the case, lawyers must also prepare a targeted and forward-looking "Case Risk Notification Letter" according to the specific case (Note: The risk notice is signed after accepting the entrustment, and it is mentioned here for the sake of narrative.) Let the customer sign it, and the customer will feel that you have worked hard on the case after careful consideration and careful analysis. What is informed is the risk of the client, and what is avoided is the risk of the lawyer.
All types of legal services provided by lawyers, authorization authority, service stage, agency fees, etc. must be fixed during the commissioning process, and a copy of the client must be submitted for reference; if there is any agency fee reduction or exemption, the "Approval of Agency Fee Reduction and Exemption" shall also be filled in "Form", record the type of case, the amount of the target, the reason for exemption, the amount of exemption, the examiner, etc., so that the client must sign and confirm it to reflect the strict and standard of the lawyer's fee system. In particular, lawyers collect litigation fees, collect case-handling travel expenses, communication expenses, etc., which must be handled through the financial department to avoid disputes in the future. Documents such as the travel expenses of the lawyer handling the case are not only proof of settlement, but also a demonstration of the lawyer's labor.
3. After accepting the commission, before the trial
(1), transcript of conversation. After accepting the commission, first understand the case from the client’s statement and the lawyer’s communication with the client. Many clients often treat the lawyer as a judge, thinking that the lawyer is a neutral person, the referee, and the statement to the lawyer are inclined, and the lawyer must This link is fixed in the form of "Talking Transcript". If in the later process of handling the case, if the client’s statement is not good for the client, after analysis by the lawyer, the client will not and find it difficult to blame the lawyer for the adverse consequences, so he has to blame himself for dishonesty.
(two), evidence custody. Under normal circumstances, the evidence that the lawyer retains the client must be a photocopy, and the name, number of copies, and number of pages of the evidence should be specified in the "Evidence Submission Record Form", and the copy of the evidence should be indicated in the remarks column. The most important thing is to sign the client. "The above original evidence has been retrieved" to prevent the loss of the original evidence from causing unnecessary trouble to the lawyers, and to prevent the risk of dishonest clients counter-attacking. When customers see you being so cautious and rigorous, they will be more assured to hand things over to you.
(3), scoring. When you go to the court to read the papers, you must make a detailed "Bookmarking Record", including the number of times you read the papers, the time and location of the papers, the judges received, and the content of the excerpts. For various reasons, some cases need to be read several times. The lawyer should record the relevant situation of each review, and even the process of contact with the judge and the waiting time, etc., to inform the client of your labor volume.
(four), investigation and evidence collection. Lawyers investigate and collect evidence, regardless of whether they finally obtain evidence, it is best to prepare the following documents. The first is the "Investigation and Evidence Collection Work Plan", which informs customers in the form of soliciting customer opinions on the time, place, contact person, method of retrieval, and possible problems that may arise in the investigation and collection of evidence; then is the "Investigation and Evidence Collection Work Record", which records the work process in detail And the content; the last is the "Evidence Analysis and Cross-examination Opinions", which allows lawyers to go deeper into the case, have a clear mind and present the simplest and best language to the court during the trial. Both clients and judges will look at your agency work with admiration.
(5), work ideas. For cases with more complicated cases, lawyers must prepare "Case Representation Work Ideas" after careful research and even collective discussion, and show the lawyer's thinking process to the client, so that the lawyer's agency effect will be better. Otherwise, what the client sees is that you read the legal documents prepared in advance in court, while the lawyer reads the papers several times, constantly inquires about the information, and plans to write and revise the legal documents. Every word has been thought through and revised repeatedly. The client Maybe when he fell asleep soundly, the lawyer was still thinking and looking for a breakthrough.
Four, the trial process
It is best for a lawyer to appear in court by allowing the client to be there in person. This is the best opportunity to show the lawyer’s demeanor in front of the client. It is really not possible to participate. The client should be asked to send a trusted person to appear in court, even if the client does not say a word or listens in front of the court. During the trial process, the outcome of the case can be more objectively understood. The customer clearly understands where to win, where to lose, and where the problem comes from. Of course, it is best to let the client understand that winning the case is indeed the result of the lawyer's work, and losing the case is due to the circumstances of the case, and the lawyer has strived for the greatest benefit or avoided the loss to the greatest extent. The lawyer can directly inform the client that your appearance in court is also a supervision of our lawyer's work, and we are also willing to accept your supervision, and at the same time make critical suggestions to us. Some lawyers often do not want clients to appear in court. In fact, this is a lack of self-confidence and lack of confidence, which will also leave hidden dangers.
5. After the trial
After the trial, the first job of the lawyer is to sort out the "Transcripts of the Trial". Due to the intense work of lawyers during the trial, the records of the trial process are often scribbled and messy. After the trial, the rules must be sorted out and read by the client. Once again, the client can perceive the lawyer's work. At the same time, the "Attorney", "Agent Opinion", etc. After the case is closed, the lawyer will promptly hand over the judgment documents to the client. If necessary, send the "Customer Return Visit Record Form" to the customer to ensure that the work is complete and the end is good.
All legal services provided by lawyers eventually appear as tangible documents. These documents are not only the results of lawyers' labor, but also the expression of labor complexity such as lawyers' knowledge, skills, and wisdom. At every step of the case, the lawyer must communicate with the client in a timely manner and present the tangible work results to the client. The client feels the hard work and complexity of the lawyer's work at any time. However, in real life, due to various considerations, lawyers often do not submit their own documents to clients, leading clients to believe that the lawyer's fee is higher than the lawyer's labor value.
In short, the work of a lawyer must be expressed in a certain form. Work process and results are both important. For lawyers, we must pay more attention to the process, especially to make the process tangible, documented, and fixed, fully demonstrate, avoid practicing risks, and make clients feel the work of lawyers.
