[WSBAPT] Returning calls

[Roger Hawkes]

Eric: squelching your rant a bit: many callers to me are just fishing for free advice; man don't have a clue whether I practice in the area they need.  If I can tell that from their message, or deduce from the content or tone of their message that I won't take the 'case', then I mostly don't call them back.  I am one of the most courteous of the lawyers you know, but I choose not to waste time or encourage rabid callers, when I have information that I can't or won't help them anyway.

From: wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com <wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com> On Behalf Of Eric Nelsen
Sent: Friday, March 31, 2023 4:28 PM
To: 'WSBA Probate & Trust Listserv' <wsbapt at lists.wsbarppt.com>
Subject: [WSBAPT] Returning calls

Can I just rant a minute?

I am going through a really lengthy spate of leaving messages for various other attorneys, trying to refer cases to them or talk to them about their availability, and never getting a call back. Leave a voicemail, even talk to an individual who promises to call back, and then nothing. For a week or longer.

I have also fielded a half-dozen calls from potential clients just in the last week or so, who have fallen all over themselves just to thank me for merely calling them back. Most tell me that they've left messages for four, five, six other attorneys and NOBODY calls them back.

Are people thinking this is the standard of practice? If so I'm setting down my position now, that it's not acceptable and it doesn't meet basic professional standards. Ghosting seems to be the thing now socially, but as professional behavior I just find it incomprehensibly discourteous, either to a potential client or to another lawyer. I can understand the occasional missed call or delayed reponse but it is happening far, far, too often to be just that.

Maybe it's not expressly in the ethics rules but I don't care: Answer your calls and if you say you'll call somebody back, do it. Even just to tell me that you're swamped and can't help, sorry. At least then I know to go elsewhere and don't waste time waiting, thinking that a lawyer, whose business presumably depends upon (an appearance of) reliability and diligence, "of course" will call me back.

End of rant. Almost all my colleagues in law are great, and are diligent and responsive and a pleasure to work with. This is not about the majority of lawyers. Happy Friday y'all.

Sincerely,

Eric

Eric C. Nelsen
Sayre Law Offices, PLLC
1417 31st Ave South
Seattle WA 98144-3909
206-625-0092
eric at sayrelawoffices.com<mailto:eric at sayrelawoffices.com>

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