Lessons Learned- Diana Minella and Taking Responsibility: Part 1

The heat surrounding the recent "scamming" of several hundred traffic ticket clients by attorney Diana Minella seems to have died down recently with lots of questions left hanging in the wind. The natural question - "How could this have happened?" - expresses only a small portion of the outrage felt by clients and attorneys alike, but does it also indicate a need to rethink the attorney-client relationship? Should clients, much as patients are now being urged to do with their doctors, take more "ownership" over their legal problems? 

As an attorney, I am left conflicted regarding these basic questions. You see, I was there in the Municipal Courts for two days in January, struggling to undo what had been done, trying to repair the damage done to our profession by volunteering my time and efforts toward helping Minella's clients fix what really couldn't be fixed. Was I a knight in shining armor - a champion of truth, justice and the American way - coming to the rescue of these veritable damsels in distress, righting their wrongs with the silver sword of a legal professional? Or was I just another suit, shucking and jiving to distract these poor people from an inherent problem in attorney-client relationships? As with most of our work, the real answer probably lies somewhere in the middle.

(To Be Continued)