As a legal assistant for a legal aid office, one of your jobs is to screen clients. You routinely…

As a legal assistant for a legal aid office, one of your
jobs is to screen clients. You routinely see new clients and report the facts
of each client’s case to one of the attorneys. The attorneys then decide which
cases they have time to take on. On Monday, a client comes into your office.
The client has no money but appears to need an attorney. The client advises you
that she has been sued and needs legal counsel to represent her for a hearing
in the state district court on Friday at 10:00 A.M. before Judge Smith. From
your experience, you are sure the attorneys do not have the time to
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As a legal assistant for a legal aid office, one of your
jobs is to screen clients. You routinely see new clients and report the facts
of each client’s case to one of the attorneys. The attorneys then decide which
cases they have time to take on. On Monday, a client comes into your office.
The client has no money but appears to need an attorney. The client advises you
that she has been sued and needs legal counsel to represent her for a hearing
in the state district court on Friday at 10:00 A.M. before Judge Smith. From
your experience, you are sure the attorneys do not have the time to accept this
case. After listening to the client, you respectfully tell her that you do not
think the office will be able to represent her. The client then leaves and you
prepare a memo to the attorneys. The attorneys subsequently decide not to
handle the matter and file is closed.

On Friday at 10:15 A.M., the office receives a phone call
from Judge Smith. Judge Smith tells your receptionist that an attorney from
your office has five minutes to get over to her courtroom to represent the
client or she (Judge Smith) will hold the office/ attorneys in contempt of
court and levy a fine against the office. Apparently, the client told Judge
Smith that she had met with a representative from the legal aid office and had
told the representative about the hearing. It was the client’s understanding
that an attorney from the legal aid office would represent her. Explain how
this matter could have been avoided.

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