My Lawyer Won't Call Me Back. What Can I Do?

Why your lawyer may not be answering

Most injury cases have slow stretches. While you are still treating, there may be little for the firm to do except collect records. After a demand goes to the insurance company, the firm may be waiting weeks for a reply. A short gap in contact during those periods can be normal.

Other causes are less harmless. The lawyer who signed you up may have left the firm. Your file may have been handed to a new case manager who has not read it. Some offices take on more cases than they can handle, and the quiet ones get pushed to the back.

Talking to a paralegal or case manager instead of the attorney is common and usually fine. The real test is simpler: when you ask a fair question about your case, do you get a real answer within a reasonable time? One missed callback is a bad week. Several weeks of unanswered calls and emails is a problem worth acting on.

What the rules say about returning client calls

All three states where Beverly Law practices have written rules on lawyer communication. None of them sets a number of hours or days for a callback. All of them expect real answers to fair questions.

Quoting these rules in an angry email rarely helps. Knowing they exist does help you judge whether a long silence is acceptable. It usually is not.

Step one: send a short written request

Phone messages are easy to lose and hard to prove. Email, or a letter if that is how the firm usually reaches you, creates a record with a date on it. Keep it calm and specific. Something like this works:

“I have called on [dates] and have not heard back. Please call me or send a written update by [date]. I would like to know where my case stands, whether any settlement offer has been made, whether a lawsuit has been filed, and what the next step is. Please also confirm the deadline to file my case.”

Seven business days is a fair deadline for a status update. Send it to the attorney and copy the case manager if you have that email. Save any reply, and note the date if nobody answers.

If you do get a call back and the answers are clear, that may be the end of it. Many communication problems are fixed once the firm knows the client is paying attention.

Keep an eye on your filing deadline

A lawyer who will not call back is a nuisance. A lawyer who will not call back while your filing deadline gets close is a real risk. If no lawsuit is filed in time, the claim can be lost for good. These are the general deadlines:

• California: two years from the injury for most injury claims under Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1. Claims against a city, county or state agency usually need a government claim within six months under Government Code § 911.2.
• Texas: two years for most injury claims under Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 16.003. Claims against a government unit need written notice within six months under § 101.101.
• Washington: three years for most injury claims under RCW 4.16.080(2). Claims against a local government need a claim filed first, then a 60-day wait, under RCW 4.96.020.

Exceptions exist, and some change these dates. If you are within a few months of any of them and still cannot get an answer about whether your case was filed, do not wait out the full silence. Get a second opinion that week.

When it makes sense to switch

You do not need your lawyer’s permission to end the relationship, and you do not need to prove wrongdoing. In California, Fracasse v. Brent holds that a client may discharge a lawyer at any time, with or without cause. The Texas Supreme Court said the same in Hoover Slovacek v. Walton: a client may fire a lawyer “for any reason or no reason at all.” Washington’s high court, in Karstetter v. King County Corrections Guild, described the right to end a lawyer relationship at any time for any reason.

A fair point to consider switching is when your written deadline passes with no reply, or when the pattern keeps repeating after you raise it. Learning about a settlement offer, a court date or a defense medical exam from someone other than your lawyer is another strong signal.

A Texas note. In Texas, the reason you switch can affect what the old lawyer may claim as a fee. Under Mandell & Wright v. Thomas, a lawyer fired without good cause can seek the contract fee, though Hoover Slovacek limits that claim by the rule against unconscionable fees. Rocha v. Ahmad treated poor communication and months of inaction as good cause, which limits the old lawyer to the reasonable value of the work done. Your saved emails and call log matter here. Beverly Law’s Texas cases are handled by our Texas-licensed attorneys, Joyce Ondich and John Efstathiou, and they review the history before we take a Texas case.

What switching involves

Once you decide to move on, the work mostly shifts to the new firm. When you come to Beverly Law, we review the case for free, in English or Spanish, and you sign a new agreement with us if it is a fit. Then we send your former lawyer written notice, request the complete file, and prepare the court paperwork if a lawsuit is already on file. In California that is usually a Substitution of Attorney form. In Texas it is a motion to substitute under Rule 10. In Washington it is a notice of withdrawal and substitution under Civil Rule 71.

Your old lawyer must hand over the file. California rule 1.16(e)(1) requires release of the file on request whether or not fees are paid, and Texas Ethics Opinion 570 confirms that the file belongs to the client.

Many people stay with a lawyer who ignores them because they think switching will cost more. With us, it does not raise your fee. Whatever your former lawyer is owed for the time they put in is paid from our fee, so your share does not shrink because a second firm got involved. Costs the old firm advanced, like filing fees or records charges, are normally repaid from the recovery, the same as on any case. If there is no recovery, you owe us nothing. More detail is on our page about whether you pay two lawyers.

One firm limit: if you have already signed a settlement release, the claim is usually over and we cannot take the case.

Filing a complaint with the bar

You can report a lawyer who will not communicate. In Texas, the State Bar’s Client-Attorney Assistance Program at (800) 932-1900 helps with problems like unreturned calls and can sometimes get a response faster than a formal grievance. In Washington, the WSBA explains how to raise concerns about a lawyer. California’s State Bar takes complaints as well.

A bar complaint may get a reply, but it does not move your injury case forward. If your goal is to get your case moving again, the practical step is usually a second opinion, then a switch if the answers point that way. Our guide to switching lawyers walks through the whole process.

Sources

1. Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 6068(m)
2. California Rules of Professional Conduct (State Bar of California, PDF)
3. Tex. Disciplinary R. Prof. Conduct 1.03 (communication)
4. Wash. RPC 1.4
5. Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 335.1
6. Cal. Gov. Code § 911.2
7. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003
8. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 101.101
9. RCW 4.16.080
10. RCW 4.96.020
11. Fracasse v. Brent (1972) 6 Cal.3d 784 (scocal.stanford.edu)
12. Hoover Slovacek LLP v. Walton, 206 S.W.3d 557 (Tex. 2006) (CourtListener)
13. Karstetter v. King County Corrections Guild, 193 Wn.2d 672 (2019) (courts.wa.gov, PDF)
14. Mandell & Wright v. Thomas, 441 S.W.2d 841 (Tex. 1969) (CourtListener)
15. Rocha v. Ahmad, 676 S.W.2d 149 (Tex. App. San Antonio 1984) (CourtListener)
16. Judicial Council Form MC-050, Substitution of Attorney (Civil)
17. Texas Rules of Civil Procedure (Rules 10, 11 and 253) (txcourts.gov, PDF)
18. Wash. Superior Court Civil Rule 71
19. Texas Professional Ethics Committee Opinion 570
20. State Bar of Texas Client-Attorney Assistance Program (CAAP)
21. Washington State Bar Association: Concerns about a lawyer