18 Lawyers Shared The Clients They Regret Working With

13.

“As a divorce/custody attorney, I’ve represented many clients whom I viewed to be reprehensible. Every client has their story, and attorneys typically don’t find out their client is the problem until they’ve been in the case for a while. My biggest regret to date is a client I represented in a child custody matter. He gave me the ick (to the extent I didn’t want to be alone with him), but my boss took the case and assigned it to me. He claimed his ex-wife had a history of calling child services against him whenever they weren’t getting along. He supported his claim with several unfounded reports against him. We were successful at trial, and he was granted significant unsupervised time with their pre-teen son. A few months later, he informs me there are pending rape and sexual assault allegations made against him with child services in his position as an in-patient mental health professional.”

“(He worked at a now-shut down facility for youth with legal issues, typically in the foster system). He requested I represent him at the child services proceedings, and my former boss consented. As he denied the allegations, I could tell he was lying and likely did what he was accused of and more. My former boss wouldn’t allow me to fire him, telling me that I’m ‘paid to take the cases assigned to [me].’ So, I sent him for a polygraph to see how he’d do before the police (who were now involved) did one — he failed so badly that the polygrapher called me to tell me to not let him anywhere near the police polygraph. I had to threaten to quit before my former boss allowed me to fire him. Due to a lack of evidence and the victim (now an adult) not being ‘credible’ due to his criminal history, no charges were filed. I regret going to the mat to get him unsupervised time with his son, as those allegations against him regarding his son were likely true, even if unfounded by child services. I gave my file with all of my notes (oops) to his next attorney, so they’d know who they were dealing with. As I now work for the courts, I’ve checked on the custody case, and he has no contact with his son.”

—32, Pennsylvania