Difficult clients just come with the territory of being a lawyer. And then there are difficult clients. The New York Lawyer describes one such client in "After Four Years of Grief, NY Lawyer Can Quit Cranky Client."
The story says the client, a college professor, still owes the attorney more than $20,000 in attorney's fees.An attorney who took the unusual but fruitless step of modifying a retainer agreement to require a troublesome client to undergo mental health treatment and to halt his ex parte communications with court personnel in a divorce case has been permitted to withdraw from the case.
"Whether the husband is presently in compliance with portions of the amended retainer or not, the court is loathe to compel an attorney to represent a litigant who does not take counsel's advice," Supreme Court Justice Anthony J. Falanga in Nassau Countywrote in granting the request to be relieved in M.P. v. A.P., 203531-2004.
But Justice Falanga's decision rejected a request by attorney Neil R. Cahn of Carle Place for appointment of a guardian ad litem to make decisions for his soon-to-be-former client in the case. Mr. Cahn cited A.P.'s "obsessive" positions in the litigation, his "suicidal expressions" and concerns of his doctors. However, the judge said that A.P. was "merely acting willfully and not in his own best interests."
