Why do so many lawyers give deceptive advice?

It has been a busy month at The Jaffe Law Firm. We have talked to a lot of people accused of DUI in Arizona, and a lot of these people also have spoken with other attorneys. While many of the attorneys these potential clients have seen have given them solid advice and information that is in their best interest, I find it very disturbing that many others do not. I am frustrated that many of these people whom I have spoken with believe the bad advice or information they have obtained elsewhere.

I started to think about why would a client believe or choose to follow blatantly bad advice in an Arizona DUI case? I'm not talking about bad advice about what to wear to court. I'm talking about the kind of bad advice that can result in stiffer fines, longer license suspensions, higher insurance and more jail or prison time. On the more harmless side, I'm talking about advice that causes the client to spend more money on an attorney than the client has to (yes, there are times when one is accused of DUI in Arizona where, because of that person's goals, it will not benefit them to hire an attorney to defend them).

After thinking about it I came to two possible conclusions: 1) the clients who ignored my good sound advice in favor of an illusion sold by somebody else are stupid; 2) the clients who ignored my advice wanted despertly to believe what the other or others had told them; or 3) the clients knew my adice was good, but because it was the truth, it left nobody for them to shift the blame to later on because I had been straight with them from the beginning. I don't know if there are other reasons, and it is certainly not my place to ask defendants who don't choose to retain my firm why they went somewhere else. Sometimes I see them in court later on, and sometimes the give me a look acknowledging their mistake, but by then it is too late. At that point it would be interferring with their relationship with the attorney they did hire to ask. So I keep my mouth shut, and service the clients who are enlightened enough to see that we give them the truth, 100% of the time, even though it means losing a whole demographic of clients who aren't ready for the truth.

It also caused me to ponder why some attorneys, who should know better, give clients misleading advice.

One approach is to scare the client into retaining and then behaving. I see this approach all the time (based on what clients who are smart enough to find their way into our office say). One manifestation is the scare tactic. Some firms, even on a first offense standard DUI, where the client is typically exposed to an expected sentence of one day (1 day) in jail... some firms tell them that they are exposed to 180 days in jail. Technically speaking, it is true that a misdemeanor DUI carries a maximum sentence of 180 days in jail. However, in my entire career, I have never, not even once, seen any judge sentence a person with an otherwise clean record to 180 days on a first offense DUI. Not even close.

So why do attorneys give that misleading advice? My guess is that it scares people into retaining them. My guess is also that, when the firm comes back to the client with an offer to do the mandatory minimum sentence (1 day), the firm then appears to be a hero to the client, and the client believes the firm has done them good. In many cases, the client would have gotten this same offer without ever hiring a lawyer at all. But as long as the client proceeds in ignorance, then the firm looks good, has to do no work, and gets to keep the 7k or 10k they charged the client for what amounted to 3 hours worth of work.

But why be a scumbag when regardless of the attorneys good or bad behavior, there are still the same large (but finite) number of potential clients out there who have the resources and intention to hire a private law firm to defend them? It amounts to laziness, I suppose. Or greed. Or incompetence. Or a secret bias against the very clients the firm seeks to defend (and therefore a rational cognitive justification for taking advantage of the client, and taking the client's money based on lies or half-truths).

I would love it if the Arizona State Bar Association would send under-cover people in to interview attorneys, posing as potential clients. I would love it if they would take action against attorneys who mislead potential clients and therefore diminish the public's perception of lawyers as a whole. I would love it if potential clients would educate themselves prior to being fooled by a TV ad or billboard or sign above a urinal. I would love it if potential clients would have the courage to walk out of a lawyer's office if they don't feel entirely comfortable instead of retaining that firm. I would love it if our system of justice wasn't stacked against the "little guy" on all sides.

To the lawyers who give the kind of bad advice I have mentioned in this article, contact me and let's talk. If you sincerely don't know that you are harming your clients, and the DUI defense bar in general by your behavior, let me buy you lunch, and let's talk about ways that you can continue to make a good living, but do so with dignity and skill, rather than the way you currently operate.