I had the strangest experience yesterday. I had been working with a client from out of state. (I am going to be somewhat general here, because I don't want to reveal any confidential material, despite the fact that the person in question is not a client). The matter was a civil matter. A response to the case had to be filed before a hearing Wednesday morning.
The client FedExed me court papers with his original signature, which I needed to file the papers. I filed them Tuesday, right under the deadline. The client flew in Tuesday so that he and I could meet in the afternoon before the hearing. At that time he was going to pay me the fee for the case and we were going to talk strategy.
The client called me 40 minutes ahead of time and told me he was waiting at my office (I was coming back from court). Well, I thought, he certainly is eager.
Sure enough, he was waiting nervously for me when I arrived at the office. I brought him into the inner sanctum. I had already begun faxing the response to the opposition attorney when I brought him into the office. "That's your response," I said, "I wanted to make sure the other side got it before tomorrow."
"I wish you could hold back on that," he said.
"Why?" I asked.
"Well..." he started going into a long story about how he had just come back from seeing the person on the other side of the law suit in Los Angeles, then had flown back to his home state, then had flown to San Francisco and drove up here. Then he said, "Listen, I don't want to hire you if I'm just going to lose." I assured him that he had a good case and that I was confident, under the law, that I could get him what he wanted in the case.
"I don't know," he said, "I talked to Mr. D (the opposition attorney). I'm expecting him to call me back."
"Since I've sent him a fax saying I represent you," I said, "he won't talk to you. Ethics prevent him from doing so."
"Just let me call him right now."
"He won't talk to you," I said, "because he thinks I represent you."
The client stood up. "I'm just going to go outside and call him real quick."
At that moment I knew exactly what the guy was going to do. But I let him go.
Sure enough, when I went out a few minutes later, he had disappeared. My client ran away from me! I was somewhat upset--I had expended hours getting the "emergency" response ready. But I was also somewhat amused. This guy was worried that I would wrestle him to the floor and make him pay me the attorney's fee! I've often been called a "big, scary man," but I've never, in 20+ years of lawyering, had a client run away from me.
The next day I showed for the court appearance--my name was on the papers and I was obligated to do so. Mr. D, the opposing attorney, greeted me with "I'm surprised to see you here. Mr. X came to my office yesterday afternoon and signed a settlement agreement." I asked the time. "It was before 4 o'clock."
The client had already signed the settlement before coming to my office!
I'm still not sure why he didn't just call me and let me know this. It would have saved me a lot of work and both of us some embarrassment.
Oh, and he never showed for court.
