Tips For Delivering Bad News By: Amanda Hough, Esq. Jaburg Wilk So, what do we do? The following roadmap provides some tips for approaching this unpleasant task. 1. Prepare to deliver the bad news by making a plan: Ideally, you know that there is a ruling or important event set to occur on a certain date and can pre-set a meeting with your client to discuss the outcome. If that is not the case, then try to have as little time between your request for the meeting and the actual meeting taking place. Determine who should be present at the meeting. Is this a one-on-one conversation? Is there an associate and a partner who both should be present?
One of the challenges of defending clients is the occasional need to deliver bad news to them. While we would like to report that the jury found for our client, or that the judge ruled in our client’s favor on every motion, the reality is that, despite our best efforts, things do not always go the way we want. In the case of criminal defendants, it may involve news that they are going to prison – and worse. Luckily for the civil defense, the bad news is not so severe.
Where will it take place? Ideally, you can meet with the client in person. Of course, the client may not be able to meet with you in person for one reason or another. With bad news, it is best to have a face-to-face conversation so you can better read your client’s reaction and determine how they are taking the news. Words can say one thing, but body language and facial reactions can tell a completely different story. In our post-COVID
Nonetheless, telling a client bad news regardless of where it falls on the scale of severity is never fun. So, how can we better approach delivering bad news? Communication is key here. Obviously, we must promptly communicate the information to our clients. That being said, we do NOT want to brashly pick up the phone and bluntly tell them we received the ruling and it was not in our favor. We also do not want to build anxiety by sending them a triggering email and then not be available to actually meet for several days.
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COMMON DEFENSE | Fall 2021 | azadc.org
