The Dreaded "It's a Long Story" Legal Problem | Mississippi Litigation Review & Commentary

When someone calls or emails looking for help on a legal problem it usually takes less than 5 minutes on the phone or 1 email exchange to know whether I can help them.

Many times, people are calling about an area of the law in which I do not practice. It’s also common for people to call about getting—for lack of a better legal term—screwed. Usually you just can’t help people who have gotten screwed. It’s sad to have to tell folks that.

And then there are the folks whose problem is “a long story.” When I first opened my practice I didn’t know what this meant. I would patiently sit on the phone for people as they explained their problem. And explained. And explained some more.

They were being honest. It was a long story. Very long.

I have been on the phone with people who talked uninterrupted for—and I’m not exaggerating—over 30 minutes. Seriously.

Now I know what “it’s a long story” means. It means they don’t have a case. And they’ve been told that already.

A lawyer who hears “it’s a long story” is not the first lawyer to hear about this person’s problem. Figuring this out was the key to solving the mystery of the “it’s a long story” person.

What has happened is that the person has called a lawyer who listens to enough of the story to know that for whatever reason, it’s not a viable case. The lawyer then bails from the call. It usually repeats with at least one more lawyer. That leaves the person saying to himself, “hey, I haven’t even finished my story.”

So the next lawyer gets “it’s a long story.”

But the truth of the matter is that it’s not a long story. The person was unactionably screwed, didn’t suffer any damages or can’t emotionally accept the fact that they were not the victim that they think they were.

Viable cases are not long stories. They may have a lot of facts. They may be complicated. But the “story” is not long.

Someone stole my money is not a long story. Nor is that someone ran into me on the road, that a lawyer missed a filing deadline, that a nursing home didn’t take care of grandma or that someone violated our contract.

For people looking for a lawyer the message is clear. Never tell the lawyer that your problem “is a long story.” If you can’t summarize your problem in a few sentences, odds are that the lawyer will not be interested in the case. That may not sound fair. But that’s the reality paved the way by lots of prior long stories.

Anderson

You make an excellent point, with applications outside the field of law.
Reminds me of an event I was at the other day, where it struck me that some of the most chilling words in English are “Our first speaker will be ….”
Jane

The other sure sign the case is worthless: “I don’t care about the money; I just want to prove a point.” And when its an hourly fee job and they say money is no object, that usually means they don’t plan to pay you so bill them whatever you want.
Tim Holleman

So true Phillip, this is a weekly occurrence. My other favorite is I’m a religious person and don’t believe in lawsuits…one time a person went so far as to tell me that Lord had told her to file the case AND The Lord told her to call ME. While the referral was a great compliment I politely declined. She became upset and accused me of disobeying The Lord. Finally I advised her he hadn’t spoke to me about it yet when he did I would call her back. After 4 years I’m still waiting.
http://nmisscommentor.com NMissC

There is a certain kind of client, unused to seeing lawyers, who comes in very nervous, has worked up the courage to do so, and therefore has to unburden themselves of the entire story before you can hope to engage in conversation with them. I call that “playing the tape”– they have to play the tape before you can get a word in edgewise.
The worst of those are the ones who can only play the tape– you ask any question and they play the tape again. “Would you like a cup of coffee?” “This all started when my neighbor….”
There was a time when a couple of times a year, someone would come in who was fired from working in a factory and wanted to sue. I’d explain what being terminable at will meant (perhaps ask about an employee handbook), and usually throw in that one of the reasons workers had unions was to stop that from happening. I’d invariably get outright shock that such a thing was what unions were at least in part about. Sometimes even disbelief– that couldn’t be right, because unions are bad.
I think the demise of a couple of local factories ended that form of walk-in.
Judge Mental

Another sure-fire, red-flag phrase: “I bought a car …”
Silence DoGood

You guys sound jaded…but all for different reasons.

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The Dreaded “It’s a Long Story” Legal Problem