Each and every one of our legal document clients, past, present and future can easily be classified into one of three distinct categories. Depending on which category they fall in, determines how they handle their legal issues, and why they call us for help. Knowing which type of client they are makes it easy to predict their future because each type has a very different and sure outcome. Each of our clients is either proactive, reactive or inactive.
Our proactive client is the one who plans and does something ahead to time to avoid or at least significantly minimize future problems. They take charge to control situations that will arise later in their or someone else’s life. This is the person who names a guardian for their minor child in their will, prepares a power of attorney when they are healthy so no one has to go to court and get an investigator involved, sets up a Living Trust so their loved ones don’t have to go to court, or prepares a prenuptial agreement before they re-marry so their children are not accidentally disinherited. This person and their family can be sure that they probably won’t be going through overwhelming and costly situations to take care of business. They don’t allow outside forces to force them into action. This describes only a small minority of our clients.
Our reactive client is the one who calls us 3 days before a trial to help them with their brief even though they’ve known for 2 months that they needed to prepare. It’s the person who kept throwing away the notices from the Department of Child Support Services and now needs help because they can’t buy a home, It’s the person who needs to get into court tomorrow morning because their girlfriend is packing to move out of state with their child. It’s the landlord who needs to evict their tenant yesterday because the neighbors are angry with their nonsense. The list goes on. These people spend a lot time dealing with their crisis of the day in “freak-out” mode. We have many more reactive clients than proactive clients.
The rest of our clients in between are inactive. They are still level-headed and responsible, but only after something happens. They’ve allowed others to make their choices for them too often. They don’t ignore things when they happen, but there’s a good chance they could have avoided the whole thing, saved a lot of money and drama if they had been proactive. This describes most of our clients.
It’s understandable why these different types of people end up in the situations that they do. It’s easy to see who will be the victim of a train wreck. The good news is you don’t have to be an out of control client who comes to us in crisis, but instead be a practical down to business client who makes things happen the way he wants. It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3:
1. Take time to think about what you need to do. Think about what will happen if you don’t do it and what will happen if you do. Then do it right away, or it won’t get done.
2. Write down a list of what you need to do and follow it, giving each task a deadline.
3. Call us to help you get it done. We can help make it happen and we will make it easy for you.
