Good Reasons to Change Lawyers

Going through an internal family problem like divorce is a life-changing event. The outcome of such a case can affect your life and the lives of the children for many years to come. Therefore, it’s important to have a good lawyer with whom you have a good working relationship. If that’s not the case, the lawyer should be discharged.

If you are experiencing any of the following they have legitimate reason to be concerned and might want to consider changing lawyers. In court the family attorney seems unprepared and lacks a basic knowledge of the facts of the case. The attorney is not responding to the client’s calls or emails and the client has a very difficult time getting questions answered by either the lawyer or the lawyer’s staff.

When the client asks how to move the case forward the attorney is unable to give a clear answer and seems to have no proactive plan.

Ongoing Missed Deadlines

Has your family attorney asked for repeated time extensions from the court without a good explanation (and without it serving your best interests)? Have you received notices from the court or from another party saying that a deadline has been missed or that your case is about to be dismissed for lack of activity? Are there documents you have been promised aren’t ready when they're supposed to be. Everybody has emergencies now and then, but if this happens repeatedly, there could be a problem.

There Are No New Developments

Don’t sit by the phone while you wait for an answer – your evasive lawyer is dodging you. Sometimes, there is a lot of inactivity on your case for long periods of time. Your lawyer may have been an SOB before becoming an attorney or maybe they just think you can’t understand anything you’ve been told so far. Worse, your family attorney has no clue what he or she is doing. An incompetent attorney equals a bad outcome. Remember, nobody cares as much about your case as you do. Make sure to do your due diligence on your representative. That counsel you hired is probably just gathering clients for his portfolio; and doesn’t give a hoot if your case falls through. Every time you speak, you receive nothing but excuses. Whatever is going on in their personal life is not your problem, but your problem is their problem. And if they don’t have time for your problem, they don’t have time for your money.


Whether the reasons for switching attorneys are good or bad it is a significant decision and one that should be made after giving is serious consideration of all the issues in the case. For example, if the case is scheduled for trial in a week it would be extremely difficult for any lawyer to adequately prepare that quickly. The family attorney-client relationship does not always work out. Sometimes this is the fault of the lawyer, who fails to communicate or fails to act with diligence on the client’s legal behalf. Sometimes this is the fault of the client, who holds the lawyer to unrealistic standards or has unrealistic expectations about the outcome of the matter.