Honesty

I ask my clients to be honest with me.  My experience has been and from what I can gather from talking with other lawyers is that most people hold back some information from their attorney.  Folks may do this because they're afraid their lawyer won't be able to represent them as effectively if the lawyer knows the truth or maybe they're concerned that their lawyer won't like them if they know the truth.

I can tell you from experience that I can best represent people who tell me the truth and, for what it's worth, I like folks who tell me the truth.  Here's an example.  I had a Social Security Disability client who I prepared for his hearing and who told me he was taking medications for pain.  He told me that he couldn't remember the specific names of the medications, which isn't unusual so I told him to write out the names and bring that to the hearing.

My client didn't bring a list of his medications to the hearing.  He brought the pill bottles, which would have been fine except the bottles were considerably out of date.  Of course, the judge examined the bottles and found them to be expired and asked my client what he was taking for pain.  My client responded "well . . . to tell you the truth Your Honor, I'm not taking the medications, I'm using Pabst Blue Ribbon for pain control."  I can laugh about it now, but I'll keep it brief and just say that the judge didn't respond well to this. 

My client had a pretty good case based upon the medical evidence.  His testimony lost his case.  Had he told me the truth in the beginning, I would have been aware of this weakness in his case and been able to help him deal with it.

Thanks for reading,
Eric
____________________________________________
Eric L. Johnson
Attorney at Law
914 Hay Street, Fayetteville, NC 28305
Tel: (910) 691-8600
Fax: (910) 222-3059
Email: elj@eljlaw.com
Web: http://www.eljlaw.com
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AttorneyEric

Comments

[SSDanswers]

Eric, you raise a good point about the wisdom of telling your lawyer everything - good or bad. I also remind my clients that they are going to be nervous at their hearing, and when you are nervous, you tend to blurt things out like your client did. Any lie, even a little one, will call into question your credibility and if a judge catches you lying about anything, he will assume you are lying about everything.
Jonathan Ginsberg
http://www.ssdanswers.com

[Eric L. Johnson]

Thanks for reading, Jon!

It has certainly been my experience that oaths calculated to awaken the conscience do just that, awaken the conscience. I know criminal defense attorneys wrestle with knowing the truth, but in my experience in my practice areas, I have a have a hard time helping folks unless I know what's really going on.
Eric
____________________________
Eric L. Johnson
Attorney at Law
914 Hay Street, Fayetteville, NC 28305
Tel: (910) 691-8600
Fax: (910) 222-3059
Email: elj@eljlaw.com