The Angry Client: Keeping Yourself and Your Staff Safe
| Author | Dr. Dana L. Cogan |
| Pages | 36-39 |
36 FAMILY ADVOCATE www.shopaba.org
the client’s anger comes from, what triggers it, how to assess
its lethality, and what can be done to ensure that the client’s
anger doesn’t get out of control and cause damage.
Where Does Anger Come From?
Anger is a feeling that we humans experience whenever we
perceive unfair treatment. A client can become angry when
he or she believes an attorney has charged for work that has
not been completed satisfactorily, overbilled for work, failed
to keep a promise, or not lived up the a client’s expecta-
tions—however ill-founded or unreasonable.
Most clients expect their attorney to protect them as they
go through the legal process and to ensure that justice prevails,
which usually means the outcome should validate the client’s
perspective regarding issues in dispute. When a client’s
perception is not validated, he or she may blame the attorney
who, according to the client, has behaved incompetently,
evidenced by an outcome that the client believes to be unfair
and unjust. is is particularly true when the attorney has
made a virtual guarantee regarding the end result of the legal
process or when the client believes the attorney has done so.
Clients typically enter an attorney’s oce in a highly
emotional state. eir feelings, wishes, and needs too often
overwhelm their ability to think rationally. e intensity of a
THE ANGRY CLIENT
Attorneys who practice in the area of family law
work in a war zone. Conict between divorc-
ing spouses can reach a feverish pitch as clients
ght their way toward resolution of their
disputes within an adversarial process.
More often than not, parties enter the attorney’s oce having
been wounded by the actions and demeaning statements of a
spouse from whom they are separating or divorced. Most
often, they direct their anger and pain toward the person who
has inicted their wounds. However, too often, that anger also
is directed toward the professional they hire to represent th em.
Anger or personality disorders are not gender linked. A
client who is suciently incensed may express this anger in
destructive ways. He or she may badmouth a lawyer to
friends, family, and other members of the community. Given
our easy access to the Internet, these clients may post online
malicious critiques of the lawyer’s work—which can be
dicult to eradicate, even when clearly libelous. In a
worst-case scenario, the attorney may be attacked physically,
resulting in permanent physical impairment or even death.
Maintaining one’s safety on the battleeld of domestic
relations should be at the forefront of every attorney’s
thinking from the moment a client walks in the door.
Ensuring personal safety requires being educated about where
Keeping Yourself and Your Sta Safe
BY DR. DANA L. COGAN
Published in Family Advocate, Volume 43, Number 3, Winter 2021. © 2021 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof
may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.
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