If you practice in legal malpractice defense or defend attorney disciplinary matters for any length of time, then you will hear your attorneys express their wish that they had terminated the attorney-client relationship sooner. Disgruntled clients are the cause of most legal malpractice and disciplinary complaints. While we often focus on what we can do to prevent legal malpractice and disciplinary complaints from the point of view of improving attorneys’ practices, there are times when there is nothing the attorney can do to prevent a client from becoming disgruntled. A bad client will become disgruntled and adversarial no matter how good the representation. Recognizing bad clients, and being willing to fire them is an important step in avoiding professional liability.
Attorneys can be very reluctant to fire their clients. Obviously, if we fire every client that causes us some level of “agita” (as it is known in Philadelphia—short for stress, anxiety and agitation), then there would be no work. The attorney business model is undergirded by conflict. Difficult clients are the norm, and many of us make a living by representing people accused of doing very bad things. However, there are times when it becomes obvious that a client is no longer worth whatever pot of gold may lie at the end of a particular rainbow.
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