Enhancing Legal Communication: Preparing for Success with Lesa Serber

Transcript

Narrator: 0:01

This podcast is for educational purposes only, does not constitute legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. If you need legal assistance about a legal problem contact an attorney.

Cimone Murphree: 0:15

Welcome back to another exciting episode of Know your Regulator, the podcast. I am your host, imone Murphy, and joining me today is a paralegal of ours, ms Lisa Serber. How are you doing, lisa?

Lesa Surber: 0:28

Doing well, thank you, I’m happy to be here.

Cimone Murphree: 0:31

Good, we’re happy to have you and I know that we’re going to talk about a really important topic that I feel can span over all areas of law, not just administrative. That is, how to effectively communicate with your attorney and support staff. And, Lesa, you’ve got a firsthand look at this, so really excited to hear you know, your experiences, your insights. I’m sure our viewers will have a lot of takeaways that they can then use to you know, enhance their own communication. So what would you say is the biggest thing you know? To the biggest thing to effectively interact with your attorney and support staff.

Lesa Surber: 1:19

Being prepared and being prepared for meetings Beforehand. Write down those questions, those concerns, anything that you want to ask your attorney. It’s your time, so make good use of it. And also, if you have any documents that we need, make sure that you’ve sent those ahead of time. Or if you don’t know what to send, maybe that’s something you should ask. These are wonderful questions, things that you can prepare ahead of time and also during your meeting. Ask those questions.

Cimone Murphree: 1:45

Absolutely. I completely agree, like you said, that’s, you know your time with the attorney and that’s your first meeting with them, so you want to make it as productive as you can right off the bat.

Lesa Surber: 1:58

Definitely, definitely. Also, a good segue into that would be to definitely communicate clearly and honestly. Um, I don’t know what your thoughts are on this, Cimone, oh yeah no, I would say that’s probably you know the.

Cimone Murphree: 2:16

The second most important thing is to communicate clearly and honestly. Um, you know, be transparent, provide your attorney with all of the facts, not just the ones that paint you in a really good light, but they need to know the full story so they can fully represent you and defend you. You know, if you leave some things out, there may come a time when that comes out and your attorney is not prepared to respond to that. So it’s very, very important that you communicate honestly. You communicate clearly to where you and your attorney are both on the same page.

Cimone Murphree: 3:03

Lesa, I know you may have some insight as to how. How can that affect your representation? If you’re not, you know, communicating with your attorney.

Lesa Surber: 3:06

If you’re not communicating clearly and you’re not telling them everything, that may hinder your outcome. If you’re upfront, like you said before, and honest with everything. I mean we’re not here to judge, we’re here to help you and the best way to help you is to be honest and upfront. And the best way to help you is to be honest and upfront because it can make your case run smoother and also it will. It will keep a lot of miscommunication and mistrust in the future when you’re building your relationship with your attorney.

Cimone Murphree: 3:40

Yes, I would say definitely your. That trust between you and your attorney is so important. You know you’ve really got to to make sure that you continue to respond, continue to communicate clearly, honestly, um, so that you guys can have the best relationship that you can.

Cimone Murphree: 3:54

Your attorney’s on your side.

Lesa Surber: 3:56

Yeah um, another thing too is to develop that relationship not only with trust, and communicating clearly is understand your attorney’s limitations. There has to be realistic outcomes. Even though you’re like I’m innocent, I know I am that’s fine. But the law moves slowly and you have to understand that responding and communication and having correspondence it takes time. So, having a clear outcome. If you have any questions about maybe what that outcome may be, you can go through maybe some different scenarios with your attorney Again during your meeting with them. That might be another question you can write down or concern. What would an outcome be? What am I supposed to expect? Have you dealt with something like this before? How did that turn out? Each scenario is different, Each case is different, but it’s more likely your attorney is very experienced and they can communicate with you on those different scenarios.

Cimone Murphree: 4:56

And it seems like you know, like you said, the law moves really slow and I think a lot of patience in the legal world is needed. In the legal world is needed. It’s patience is just so essential when you’re working with an attorney and you’re dealing with a legal challenge. It can be so stressful and you definitely wanna get it done with as soon as possible, but sometimes that is just not an option, and so patience is huge, huge in kind of going back to that trust with your attorney, trust that your attorney is going to do what they say that they’re going to do, and just be patient with them In that patience. Another big thing is to respect your attorney’s time. Make sure you’re on time for those meetings. Your attorney’s time is valuable and you are paying for it too. So limit those non-essential communications. It is important to stay in touch, but you don’t need to. You know, vent to your attorney. You don’t need to ask your attorney all the time how things are going.

Lesa Surber: 6:41

So ask your attorney all the time how things are going, trust that if they’ve got an update they’ll give it to you. But in any attorney that you’re doing your due diligence and your part to and keeping the communications to non-essential communication email or correspondence or however the communication has been decided with your attorney how they prefer to communicate with you professional relationship with your attorney. That goes very far, because if we can’t get a hold of you or you don’t communicate with them, your attorney may drop your case because they can’t contact you. There’s no response. That could be a risk too and that again that could damage your relationship with your attorney and also any future prospects if you need to use that attorney again. So maintaining a professional relationship I think is definitely will help you hit all the five points that we’ve discussed thus far.

Cimone Murphree: 7:45

You know, maintaining a professional relationship kind of just clears up some expectations, some misunderstandings, right off the bat. You know you guys keep a professional the whole way through and I can’t see it going any other way than being successful. You know, not that the case would be successful, but that you know at least your relationship with this attorney is and you can utilize them in the future, like you said. Yeah, very, very true. And another thing I kind of want to add to that is providing feedback to your attorney is not unprofessional. If you have concerns about how your case is going or it’s being handled, your attorney should encourage you to talk with them, of course respectfully, but constructive feedback is so great for any firm. It can help improve communication, any misunderstandings. You know, if you’ve got a sour taste in your mouth about a legal challenge and the way your attorney is handling it, talk to them. More often than not they can go in and fix things and they want to make it right.

Lesa Surber: 8:53

Perfect. Definitely I 100% agree with you.

Cimone Murphree: 8:59

Yeah, it’s, it can be. Expectations are big, you know, expectations and communications so big. And speaking of expectations, I would say another really big one. These are all big, but is understanding the fee structure? You know. But is understanding the fee structure? You know? Law firms have different ways that they operate. Not every firm is the same, Not, you know. Even firms in the same area of law may not charge the same way. So it’s very important that you understand, you know the firm’s billing practices. You understand how they charge for their services. Is it hourly, is it a flat fee? Is it contingency? You don’t want any surprises later on and that can just make things so much more stressful. So make sure that you understand the billing practices and the fee structure of your attorney and their firm.

Lesa Surber: 9:56

Most definitely. I agree, because sometimes that’s also another huge complaint. If you don’t understand your fee structure before you speak to your attorney, maybe that’s one of the questions you need to ask in your meeting. Don’t wait for a long period of time and then say what is this? Why am I getting billed for that? What’s going on here? Understand, follow. If you have questions, please ask us. We’re not going to turn you away and say, no, that’s unrealistic. How dare you ask us? No, we want to know. We definitely want to know.

Cimone Murphree: 10:26

And we want to help and you know that’s kind of the whole goal of this episode too is how can we help clients enhance their communication and be more effective and help these cases flow smoother? And, Lesa, I think we’ve given six really great tips for our viewers to take away and effectively enhance their communication.

Lesa Surber: 10:51

I agree, I agree and I hope that this helps someone out there. If you’re listening and wondering, I hope these tips help and, again, you can always reach out to us if you need more tips and tricks.

Cimone Murphree: 11:03

Well, we are always sharing tips and tricks here at Know your Regulator, inspiring you to engage with your regulatory agency. You know, if you ever have any questions or anything, please reach out to us, Lesa. Thank you so much for joining us this afternoon. I’ve had a great time. Our viewers are going to love these tips. Thanks again.

Lesa Surber: 11:26

Thank you, Cimone. It was wonderful being here and reach out. If you have any questions,

Narrator: 11:32

Know your Regulator, the podcast that inspires you to engage.