You are an assistant in a storefront legal office, a summer employee planning to

Question

You are an assistant in a storefront legal office, a summer employee planning to enter law school in the fall. You are assigned to do the initial interview of a new walk-in client. The client wants to sue her landlord for negligence in connection with severe injuries she sustained on the staircase in her apartment house. However, you quickly find out that the injuries are fictional. You know that the tendency in these cases is for the client to collect a small amount anyway (it's cheaper for the landlord to pay off than to fight). One way that your office stays in business is on its share of just such suits. What do you tell the client? What do you tell the attorneys.

Explanation / Answer

The employee should tell the client that he/she will inform the matter to the responsible attorney. He/ she should not take the decision of accepting or rejecting the case, since he/she is not a technical person and the earning of the business is involved. The employee should act like a mediator between the client and the attorney, and nothing else.

The employee should tell the attorney the true fact what he/she observed. The person gets the employment because of that reason only. The assistant must inform the attorney about the motive of the client and her injury, which seems fictional. Such information helps the attorney evaluating the case.

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