That was me the other day, getting angsty at people asking me to do stuff for free…
http://www.marilynstowe.co.uk/2017/04/18/the-great-pro-bono-debate-is-it-a-good-or-a-bad-thing/
Since then I’ve answered another few emails including the word “desperate”, telling me how they can’t afford a lawyer and how terribly complex their case is – but can I help anyway? Often these emails are dressed up as public access enquiries, many of which conveniently forget to state that they can’t pay for your time, whilst also recounting that they have parted ways with their previous solicitor because they can’t afford them / have been bled dry etc etc. I think that this type of prospective client hopes that I will forget to send an invoice, in the same way that clients who are using crack cocaine hope that someone will accidentally mix up the hair samples and they’ll get lucky and the test report will show clear for crack… Ain’t gonna happen. It is very difficult to say no to people who need help, but it is the responsible thing to do where public access is not right for them and a nightmare for me (it is great for the right client in the right case if used in the right way – but expensive and unsatisfactory where it is not), where it needs far more attention than I can give it (bearing in mind that a “desperate” lay client often cannot articulate accurately what the case is about or the history and cannot present the papers in a format that makes it at all easy to properly understand the case), or where I cannot meet whatever looming deadline is approaching. For every pro bono case I take on there is more and more pressure on me because there is less room to earn the money I need to buy school shoes and new law books and pay my mortgage. And less time to devote to rewriting Family Courts without a Lawyer – A Handbook for Litigants in Person, or to writing this blog, or to working on The Transparency Project – all of which I think are a reasonable way of spreading out what I have to offer to enable me to be vaguely useful to a greater number of people. It is very hard to say no to a person with a name, in favour of prioritising something of general utility – and consequently I often find I have spread myself too thin.
My name is Lucy and I am addicted to saying “oh alright then”. I am one week clean.
I shouldn’t complain, as I’ve brought it on myself but the trouble is that people see my online presence, and assume that because I’ve done some pro bono, do some stuff for LiPs, run a website it’s worth a shot. It’s not. It’s a waste of your time and mine. This is not a rich person’s hobby. It’s my job. It’s a job I love very much and it’s a job I try to use to help people having a rough time, but I’m not a multi-millionaire just doing this to keep myself busy.
So, though I hate to be hard nosed about it, I am yet again on a “Just say no” drive, for the sake of my own sanity – and for the sake of my actual clients who need me to be managing my work life balance so that I can continue to do as good a job for them as they deserve. This week I have said no to someone asking me (for the third time) to do a lecture, someone wanting me to give them some free advice about some obscure point they said I’d left out of my book, to a solicitor asking me to take on a client for free that she wasn’t prepared to take on for free herself, and to my clerks asking me if I could come in on that day I said I was not available for work. Just now I said no to my own children (can I have ANOTHER easter egg mummy?). So l’m giving myself a pat on the back here.
Anyway, here’s Zammo to reinforce the message…
Ahh….Grange Hill…want to know the irony. One of the girls in the cast got a bit of a “donut icing sugar” habit later in her career. Ended doing anti-drug lectures on the “anti drug foundation type circuit”! Only know because I was in the audience. No…not a druggie. Mandatory attendance – orders. Military ones not judicial. Javellin Barracks Elmpt Germany 🙂
Better 80’s song. Just as topical. Aha! Take on me!
Hi Lucy,
I’m a LiP and I just want to say that your book, blog and videos have been a tremendous help to me. You have enabled me to have the confidence and courage to be able to help myself. I’m glad that you said ‘no’ to some desperate pleas for help so that you could spare the time to provide these resources. As a result you have helped many more people than you could on a 1:1 basis. I know it’s not the same as getting tailored legal advice and representation but it is better than nothing!
I’ve had years of litigation and lawyers in some form or another and most of them have been pretty damn good. I decided to follow you on twitter via @nofamilylawyer and @familoo to help broaden my understanding of family law whilst I muddled through my divorce. WOW! What an eye opener that was! It was only once I read tweets from legal professionals like yourself that I truly appreciated just how hard you all work. The dedication, determination and passion with which you raise issues and concerns are admirable. It is clear that what you do is so much more than just a job to you. You clearly work very hard and deserve to be rewarded accordingly. I don’t think lay people really appreciate or understand this – I certainly didn’t.
Pam,
Thanks for your comment, which was hugely cheering. You are right – it’s definitely not the same as legal advice but I’m proud to offer my “better than nothing” to those who would otherwise be left in the lurch.
Lucy 🙂
The pro bono scenario is fraught with contradictions. You (Lucy) and many other lawyers do a lot of de-mystifying by making yourselves and the law accessible, as well as working for free. Student pro bono projects (well supervised) are hugely valuable. Even in the dark ages when I was an articled clerk and we had a thing called legal aid, I did free evening sessions in Knowle.
But the more you try to help, the more you get asked to help and the more you realise you can’t help (whether because that person really has exhausted all options or because you are too busy helping all the others before them).
So what choice do you have? Prop up a broken system or say No every time. I don’t think it is analagous to ‘Just Say No’ because lawyers who do pro bono work are accepting and attempting to patch up a system, not an individual.
*dismounts from high horse*
Damn you for pointing out the flaws in my analogy, but it was more about the personal strength to say no to individual requests than saying no to pro bono on principle (which I’m not – I will do pro bono again, just not at the moment). 🙂