Serious misconceptions about the legal system are among thehidden stressors that impose a high cost on people and theirworkplace. The stressors arise in workers’ lives away from the job,but come to the job with them. What happens outside takes a heftytoll inside. Every manager grappling with human resource issues, ortrying to administer benefits programs, deals with such problemsdaily.

Hardly any of the external stressors is more intense than thosethat lay siege to an employee involved in litigation. A marriagehits the rocks, and negotiations over everything from child custodyto division of property to alimony to debt responsibility shovesthe employee into an emotionally tough court battle. A worker’steenager wrecks the family car while speeding, injuring the driverof another car, and the employee begins the arduous trek throughthe legal system. The list of crises could go on and on.

The employee arrives at work daily ignited with tension, andworks hard to control it. But a supervisor notices the symptoms ofpresenteeism. The worker is physically present, going about jobfunctions mechanically and usually inadequately because the personis not mentally or emotionally focused on the job. Another memberof the team is unusually irritable, and sets off an earthquake ofconflict that threatens the operations of the entiredepartment.

Often the employee’s stress is brought about because the workerhas had a startling collision with reality. The gap betweenexpectations and actuality suddenly looms in front of the person.This is especially true for employees going through the swamp of alegal issue.

The price we pay

Because of naiveté, many people snared in litigation begin withan expectation in which they tell themselves, “I will be able torecover most of my costs if I win my lawsuit.” Many arrive at naïveexpectations because they are unfamiliar with how the Americanlegal system works. They have little or no knowledge regarding thehigh cost of lawyers, and the repeated delays that often causelegal fees to skyrocket.

The expectation of recovering costs is shattered when theemployee involved in a legal issue realizes the high cost ofattorneys actually grows into a roadblock on the (hoped for)journey to victory. Further, there is the shock of discovering thatin most cases each party pays its own legal expenses. Rather thangenuine resolution and justice, the huge price of representationoften drives an employee to compromise and settle the case. Thefrustration and sense of defeat stays with an individual a longtime, traveling with him or her everywhere, including—and oftenespecially—the workplace.

People involved in litigation find themselves sinking in thequicksand of mind-bending court procedures, and in the even moresurprising costs that pop up. In fact, one of the heftiestobstacles is the anxiety that those incomprehensible court ruleswill cost the litigant. The reason is that lengthy procedural stepsin the legal system have the effect of increasing the cost of anattorney’s time.

One of the most frequent complaints about the courtsystem—especially when contrasted with mediation—is the entirelawsuit takes so long to get from start to conclusion, drivingattorney fees upward.

Most people don’t have a “rainy day lawyer fund.” Employeespulled into the courts are forced to use savings, borrow money, orworse, tap their retirement funds when legal problems suddenlyburden them. For the first time perhaps, they have to face thornyissues like “time billing.” Time, along with expertise, personalrelationships with judges, and other non-tangible services all gointo the client’s bill.

A legal case study

Wilma is an employee of XYZ Corporation. She had employed acaregiver to stay with her mother, who is suffering from dementia.Wilma was careful, and wrote out her expectations for thecaregiver. She and the sitter both signed the document, and Wilmabreathed easier, believing the caregiver would honor its terms. Butsoon, Wilma discovered the sitter was watching television all day,not caring for her mother. She fired her, and a few weeks later,Wilma was served with a lawsuit. The caregiver accused her ofviolating their agreement.

Wilma hired a lawyer, and stepped into the frightening world ofthe court system. Already staggering under the legal bills, Wilmafound the price constantly going up. In court she would hear acontinual stream of legalese. She knew the technical court garblehad important implications for her case, but understood little ofit. Wilma would phone her attorney for a 15-minute discussion forclarification, then see her lawyer bill increase by thequarter-hour she had assumed would be informal conversation. Themore explanation she needed, the higher her bill.

Wilma’s boss would sometimes see her tucked in the corner of herwork station on a phone call, and then running to the restroom intears. Wilma had been a top performer, but the constant anxietyover mounting bills was wearing her down. The very work shedesperately needed to get done to keep the paycheck coming in thatpaid those legal fees began to suffer.

Multiply the “Wilmas” across the corporate landscape and youbegin to get a feel for the enormity of the problem. For many,depression settles on them like a heavy fog, and they begin to misswork. Rising stress in an employee increases health care costs. Asan employee entangled in the legal system is consumed with “whatifs?,” they lose concentration and mistakes mount, sometimes tocatastrophic levels. Imagine, for example, a forklift driverpreoccupied with the fear of losing a child to a drunken or abusivespouse through court action, and you can see the enormity of theproblem.

Common misconceptions

The first misconception regarding the legal system is related toattorney and legal fees. The second is perhaps even more disturbingto the employee caught up in a legal conflict. The secondmisconception is the assumption that the winner in a court battlewill always recover his or costs.

While this may seem unfair to many, to most employees the hugecost of lawyers not only creates, but exponentially increases, thehigh degree of frustration, dissatisfaction, stress, anger andemotional upset inherent in the financial or legal problem. Afterall, the offending party has already usually cost them a largeamount of money—the reason they sued in the first place—and nowthey have to spend more large amounts to pay for the lawyers to tryto recover the loss. Employees routinely report that delay and theresulting expenses exceed fairness and create an enormous amount ofhostility and anger which is routinely brought into theworkplace.

A third misconception regarding the legal system that bringsstress to employees tangling with it is the lack of understandingof the litigation process, coupled with not having a counselor tohelp the employee comprehend what will happen in his or hercase.

Your employee entering the legal system for the first time willlikely have the assumption that causes him to say to himself, “I’msure my case will be as important to the court as it is to me.”

But eventually the worker runs into the unyielding wall ofreality: The court system has a substantial number of cases andoften a serious backlog, and each case receives only a limitedcourt time.

A serious matter

The stringent requirements, rules and procedures of the Americanlegal system convey an extraordinary seriousness, and create muchfear and apprehension among employees engaged with it. Rarely wouldsomeone imagine themselves in a courtroom, yet legal problems,arrests and related issues can arise at the most unexpected timesand in the most unexpected circumstances. They are not limited tomajor criminals.

Most every court case is serious, but we really only think aboutthe legal system when we’re involved in it. And when we do becomeaware of the legal system, we tend to believe our own case is the“most serious.” This often becomes a problem for employees ormanagers, because there’s potential for serious consequences, buttheir case may not be as important to the court system as theythink it is. Most employees run into this issue the firsttime they have to go to court, slowly realizing they wait all dayfor the judge to call their case. Employees often do not understandthat the court may consider other cases to be much more serious.Additionally, a court may deal with 25 cases or more aday.

Realizing one’s own case is only one of many others has adetrimental effect on many clients. They grasp that their attorneyhas other equally important clients, meaning the individual’s owncase is not getting the attention the client assumed it would. Theresult is more frustration, and perhaps even anger. The employee’sstress goes beyond the intensity that thrust the person into thelegal system in the first place.

Couple this with the idea that most clients believe they cansimply go to court, tell their story, and the judge will agree withthem. However, once involved the employee begins to seethat their underlying financial or legal problem is not beingresolved quickly and the lawsuit is not bringing quick resolution.

Feeling alone

Closely linked to the misconception that the employee’s casewill be the court’s highest priority is the wrong assumption thatthere will be counselors to help the worker not only through thelegal system, but also in wrestling with the mental distress itbrings. The reality is lawyers are not counselors equipped tohandle the emotional stress brought on by legal conflict.

One of the most difficult facts to understand is how difficultit can be to work with an attorney. And one of the mostmisunderstood issues is client expectations versus legal systemrealities. The way many clients view attorneys is among the mosttroubling areas of misunderstanding that leads to increasedfrustration, anger and a feeling that the client is completelyalone in the legal system.

Most clients expect their attorney to act like a counselor, aconsultant and even a psychologist. Clients often want every detailexplained, especially those workers accustomed to their health ordental plan benefits being explained in much detail. Employees feelthey need their attorneys to spend more time with them to give themdetails about the legal system. Most are not nearly as familiarwith how lawyers work as they are with doctors or dentists.

The problem is that attorneys are trained to be “advocates” inand out of court. However, the employee often misses this meaning.An attorney does not “advocate” to his/her client, but tothe judge and to the other side’s attorney. Overwhelmingly, clientsdo not understand this distinction. It becomes quickly important asclients realize their own attorney does not take much time toexplain what the client feels is vital detail, or spend much timetalking to clients during the case—either in court or out ofcourt.

Clients also quickly realize an attorney may not be adept atcounseling or with the psychology of the legal battle from theemployee perspective. Clients also apprehend that many attorneys donot foster or cultivate that “warm and fuzzy” counseling aura. Manybecome disappointed when the attorney seems to be fact-oriented,disinterested, or unemotional about the opponents in thelitigation, and in some situations is actually dismissive when itcomes to the conclusion of their court matter for the day. Thisdismissive nature can often be a real problem for the client whoexpects everyone will see the magnitude of his or her legalproblem. Many clients certainly expect their own attorney—to whomthey are usually paying large amounts of money—to be absolutelydevoted to their legal matter and totally committed to the“wrongness” of the opposing party. However, the sheer complexity,style and methodology of the American court system bring litigant’sexpectations crashing down. Not only does the collision withreality impact the worker, but the workplace, and the company ofwhich it is a part.

Legal access plans can go a long way in dealing positively withthe tensions brought on by misconceptions and their negative impacton employees and their businesses. Such plans are preventative, inthat they help soften the blow that comes in the collision ofmisconception and reality. Future articles in this series willexplore solutions that can address the costly consequences foremployees involved in litigation, and their companies.