Fraudulent lawyers: how to recognize them
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Loading... - Jerry Taylor
- 15 Jul 2022
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Many citizens who apply for legal assistance are victims of unqualified specialists or even scammers. Introduced in 1991, licensing for the provision of paid legal services was abolished seven years later, and since then any organization, individual entrepreneurs, and even self-employed people can provide them. The state does not currently control the qualifications of these specialists or whether they have any education.
There are many examples when persons who do not even have a legal education could act as a representative of the victims in court. Thus, clients did not receive qualified assistance.
Now the authorities are working to eliminate this "legal anomaly", but for now you need to be careful and not let yourself be deceived.
To understand who is in front of you - a conscientious lawyer or a fraudster - you need to pay attention to seven points.
1. Free legal advice as a marketing ploy
The very case when "free cheese" is only in the "mousetrap". This marketing technique is one of the most hackneyed in terms of advertising legal services, most often it is combined with the mention of federal law No. 324-FZ of November 21, 2011 "On free legal aid in the Russian Federation", which gives the right to receive free legal aid , one of the types of which is a free consultation. However, when mentioning this law, lawyers forget to inform their potential clients that the right to free legal assistance under this law is far from being provided for everyone (Article 20 of this law).
If you do not belong to one of these categories of citizens, then you are not eligible for free legal assistance under the state program. Moreover, the list of issues for which you can apply for free legal assistance is also limited by law and cannot include "any issues" that are talked about on websites or in telephone advertisements.
Under the guise of a free consultation, the most common sale of legal services takes place. A person comes with some problem or question, where they begin to process him in full, unwind all his fears, anxiety, identify areas in which he is poorly versed, and play on this, aggravate the consequences and resort to direct deception.
2. Money is more important than business
Familiarization with the materials is, first of all, time and a certain level of labor costs on the part of a lawyer. Not a single lawyer, no matter how experienced he may be, is not able to assess the cost of the forthcoming work without reading the case materials. Therefore, if a lawyer, without looking at your documents, bills you for a round sum for his services, this is a signal that you should think about his competence.
3. "Just for You" Discounts
Did you hear the cost and decide to take a time out or not sign a contract at all? Did a lawyer run to negotiate discounts for you with management and return with a unique offer? Don't believe! This technique is also a marketing ploy aimed at persuading you to conclude a contract.
As a rule, it consists of 2 parts: promotions or special offers with a limited duration, offers to conclude an agreement right now and make a minimum prepayment to fix the price (even in the amount of 1000 rubles).
Such a move means that in front of you is a “sales lawyer”, or, as they are also called, a primary reception lawyer. Such lawyers have only one task - to conclude an agreement, and for this they are sometimes ready for anything, sometimes even for outright lies. Read More…
