You’ve finally made it into the office for your consultation. Things haven’t been good for a long time, but you never wanted to be here so you kept putting it off. You walk in to meet with the attorney, and after? You feel like a huge weight has been lifted. You know what it will cost to get this process started. You know a little about the process. You know what the future holds if you are ready to move forward. You get in the car and head home with a clearer picture of what lies ahead. Then you get home and you feel like you returned to where you started. You don’t know what to do next. You think you heard it. You think they told you what the next step is, but you’re not sure what to do. Here are a few paths that you can take:
- Work on your marriage (and/or situation). You know that there is something broken that needs to be fixed. You may not know what it will take to fix your situation, but you do know that there was something big enough to make you seek an attorney’s advice. It’s time to see if you can find a solution if you are still having doubts. You need to seek a counselor or therapist if you think you need outside help. There may be programs for drug issues that you could push on yourself or your spouse. Perhaps you simply need to stop checking out the twins’ soccer coach. Perhaps you need to tell your husband you know about his 6 + social media dating accounts. Whatever it is that makes you want to leave, if you want to stay more, then you need to find a solution.
- Seek Other Advice. Maybe when you left the consultation, the skies were murkier than before. Maybe you felt like you were not in good hands, and you needed a better game plan going forward. It might be best for you to find someone else to give you advice. Remember, it’s always best to start off on the right foot. There are a lot of attorneys out there who will spend your money and set you free. You need someone who’s in it for the long haul. Someone who will provide you with legal support and a clear (as can be) path going forward. You want to feel like your attorney is as invested in you as you are in them. If your attorney is texting other people while you’re in their office, run. If they are more interested in telling you what you want, than listening to what you want, run. If they are more interested in selling themselves to you as opposed to listening to your story – they’re just desperate for business. Make sure you research before you hire. Also – just because their retainer is cheap, doesn’t mean that you should get in on the bargain.
- Hire your attorney. As attorneys we make money off of providing advice and solutions to fix problems. We can give you advice on how to best protect yourself, and we provide solutions by finding ways to enforce what you are legally entitled to. If the other side is amenable to what you are entitled to, we don’t have to be in the courtroom to do it. We get paid to do these things by our clients. We have spent a very long time studying, practicing, and working in our field so that we can steer our clients in the right direction. When you don't hire us, but call us to get advice, we cannot make money. Our time is being spent for free when it could be spent on a client who paid a retainer. Consider this situation. You tear your ACL. You go to your doctor, he runs the tests, you go back. He says that you tore your ACL and here are the options: surgery with him, surgery elsewhere, or living with a torn ACL. Do you then call the doctor on fifteen different occasions to find out how it was he was going to do the surgery again or how could you possibly live with the torn ACL? You ask about anti-inflammatories. You ask about the different surgery options nearly each day. Did you say I could use a cadaver? Yes, I can. Okay, so if I use a cadaver’s graft – would that be as effective as my own? Oh, I could use my own, should I do that? You think it would be stronger? But that might hurt? Hm. I’ll call you tomorrow. I was thinking, I talked with my friends, and they said they used a hamstring graft and it was just as effective as using the patellar tendon. What do you think about that? Oh, yeah you said that it’s not as strong. Do you still think that? I’ll call you tomorrow. Oh, my knee feels wobbly. Do you know why? It’s because I need surgery? But, I’m not sure. I might just need a few pain meds. I could also just do this myself, right? I could use a gum packet and a few rubber bands for stability? Do you think that doctor is going to return your different phone calls for eternity? No. He already answered how to fix the issue. He told you how he would do this. He provided you with the information you needed to move forward. If you don’t, he’s not going to keep answering. He’ll have his assistant call, or he’ll tell you to call when you’re ready for surgery. Call us when you’re ready for surgery.