Vlog: Client Contract Segment #1 - Disclaimers

Transcription:

 Hi everybody. It's Matt Clendenin. I hope everyone is self isolating, staying safe, and hopefully we are going to beat this thing in a little bit here. I want to take some time to go over my fee agreement. This is what I do with every new client and it's something that's important to me. We've all been in the situation where someone pushes a contract at you and you just sign everything, sign, sign, sign, click, click, click, click. This is not that. I want to make sure that every client that hires me knows exactly what I'm going to do, how I'm going to do it, so that there's no miscommunications. I think that understanding the fee agreement with your lawyer is critical to having a good foundation of the case. So let's go ahead and jump in. 

So the first thing I always go over with a client right off the top are disclaimers. The first disclaimer is that I'm not going to do any work until we both signed this contract. And until we do that, I am not your lawyer. That's very important to understand when I become a client's lawyer. And that's after we both signed this contract. Second most important thing is that the only thing I can promise in litigation is that I don't know what's going to happen. And so I'm not gonna make any promises, guarantees. Nothing I say is telling you what the outcome of your case is going to be. And you need to understand that this is a contingency fee case. I'm going to take the risk, but there's risk for you too, and I can't promise a certain result. The last thing, which is required by law, is I state in writing that I do carry legal malpractice insurance. So if I screw up your case, there will be insurance to cover. I've never had to use it. Never had a claim on my malpractice insurance. Knock on wood, but I do have it.