r/YouShouldKnow • u/marcus474 • 9d ago
Other YSK: Threatening a lawyer (especially if you aren't really ready) can ultimately backfire
Why YSK: Many businesses have a policy that if a customer threatens to sue, they are then instructed to discontinue (or severely limit) further assistance and to have the customer contact the company's legal department...
Unless you're really going to sue, don't use it as a threat.
Edit: I realized I used poor phrasing... I maybe should've said if you threaten a lawsuit, not lawyer. Never threaten a lawyer.
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u/RjoTTU-bio 9d ago edited 8d ago
I thought you meant threatening the lawyer that represents you from your title. Don’t do that either.
**Edit:** my wife is an attorney. The client threatened to sue the team as some sort of motivation tactic. It backfired and the judge allowed everyone to quit. The client couldn’t find representation since they refused to pay for previous services. Client was ended up representing themself and got smoked. Don’t threaten your attorney.
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u/Phorically_Meta 9d ago
Linguistic ambiguity. I thought the same thing at first. Just like many other expressions, this one works both ways haha
I am threatening (the deployment and use of) a lawyer.
I am threatening (with the aid of my rancor and malice) a lawyer.
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u/Starkrall 8d ago
I mean the post title is literally "Threatening a Lawyer can backfire" I don't think there's any ambiguity, just worded completely wrong.
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u/OG_Williker 9d ago
Likewise on the other side, if someone threatens to sue you, cut off all contact and make sure all communication goes through a lawyer. Or at least be very careful about what you say and make sure to save all communications to provide to a lawyer. Only communicate by writing, never on the phone unless you can record the call, the legality of which depends on what state you and the other party are in. Some states don’t allow you to record a call without notifying the other person first.
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u/firenamedgabe 8d ago
I work in a very litigious industry. This comes with continuing to work with people when all sides know litigation is a real possibility. Basically, lawyers talk to lawyers, and you can still handle day to day business with your contact(s). Both sides are well aware everything is being documented.
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u/El_Paco 8d ago
I worked at a tech company that'd take calls from customers. One time a customer was demanding that I refund him for a year of services despite never cancelling his account. We were always told to end the contact once they threatened legal stuff, but I knew this dude was full of it.
"I'm going to sue the company, and I'm going to sue you personally!"
Just replied to him "well, when that comes, I'll deal with it the, but we're dealing with this right now"
Ultimately he ended the call by screaming at me "Then go fuck yourself you goddamn asshole!" Still one of my favorite calls
I could have given him 3 months of refund if he had been nice about things, but instead he got a prorated refund for the rest of the month.
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u/AriesAsF 8d ago
I'm a dentist and the number one rule of being threatened by a patient is to completely disengage. No further contact with that person except through a malpractice attorney. That's the advice of my malpractice insurance anyway.
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u/MrPolymath 8d ago
I worked in a car customization shop a while back. Every now and then we'd get someone threaten with a lawyer when they weren't happy - happened maybe twice that I can remember in a ten year career. Both times the customers immediately realized they didn't get the response they were looking for.
First time the guy said he was gonna get a lawyer, we immediately responded we can no longer talk to them and gave them a corporate number to call to discuss next steps. Guy realized the conversation was over and sounded disappointed / deflated.
Second time the guy sounded very stern, but immediately tried to back track as soon as we told him we can't talk to him anymore and he had to deal with corporate. He kept trying to go back, we kept apologizing and saying we could discuss no further, then directing him to corporate.
As far as I know, no lawsuit happened in either case.
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u/EntertainerOk9179 9d ago
Worked on Uber support.
Threatened an ADA type lawsuit and whaddya know a couple weeks later my problem was mysteriously resolved.
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u/kalel3000 9d ago
ADA type lawsuits are different.
With a small claims type lawsuit, a representative may make issues worse the more they interact with a customer. They may admit or promise something that weakens the company's case if it goes to court.
With ADA issues, its about compliance. If the company is not compliant with ADA requirements, they can not only be sued, but also fined and forced to change their company wide policies/procedures or make physical changes to their infrastructure to become compliant. So when issues like these are brought to their attention, they deal with them alot more quickly and with less resistance, because its not just about losing an individual case, its about the various financial and legal repercussions of not being ADA compliant plus the negative publicity.
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u/Meatball_express 9d ago
Remember kids, ADA is a federal mandate! Accessibility is for everyone, not only the disabled but children and senior citizens as well.
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9d ago
[deleted]
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u/Meatball_express 8d ago
Why do you think that? What specifically do you disagree with? I'm an architect so I get a lot of push back from clients about accessibility but always respond with the fact that it's a federal mandate and they must comply.
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u/EntertainerOk9179 9d ago
Thank you for educating me
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u/kalel3000 8d ago
No problem!
What's even more interesting about ADA lawsuits is that unlike other lawsuits, a disabled person doesn't even need to have been personally affected by a buisness to file a lawsuit.
For instance lets say a buisness has a public restroom but not an ADA option or a business lacks legally required ramps, a disabled person can file a lawsuit solely on the intent to visit, without ever actually attempting to do so. As long as its reasonable that the establishment was geographically in an area where they reasonably may have had an intent to visit, they can sue simply because had they attempted to frequent that buisness they wouldn't have had the accommodations necessary to do so, and it's the buisness's responsibility to maintain reasonable accommodations for them.
This is why in buisnesses sometimes you'll see signs up clearly stating "No Public Restrooms". Because if there is a restroom on-site that a lawer can claim is open for public use, and it is not ADA compliant, then a lawsuit can be filed on behalf of someone who is disabled. And they dont need to come in and ask to use the restroom for such a lawsuit to be filed.
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u/mazzicc 8d ago
Yeah, I worked at a very large company that as soon as you said you’re going to sue, the agent was instructed to no longer discuss the account and provide the number for the legal customer support escalation team.
You couldn’t say “I don’t mean it” or “fine I won’t” to the agent, they just had to keep saying “due to potential legal action, I cannot assist you, please contact this team at ____”
You had to contact them and they put a bunch of warnings on your account in case of future threats, and you were also flagged as ineligible for any loyalty offers or discretionary discounts for a year.
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u/Anagoth9 8d ago
LPT: Don't threaten to sue. If you plan to follow through, don't give advanced warning.
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u/drunkjulia 8d ago
Yeah, that's always a relief for me when working with complicated customer service cases. It means I don't have to deal with them any more! And the legal department won't really do much- they just receive information and respond when they are required to.
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u/SmokeEmIfYaGotEm90 8d ago
Work for a home builder. Having an issue and threaten a lawyer? Well, all work stops and you can have your lawyers contact us. Easy out and you are SOL
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u/badchad65 9d ago
I think the real LPT is most attorneys are charging a minimum $300/hr. The vast majority of folks threatening "to sue" have zero intention of following through.
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u/NietszcheIsDead08 8d ago
Doesn’t matter. They threaten, you disengage. Just in case. It’s sound legal advice.
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u/Abide_or_Die 8d ago
I worked the county planning and zoning "front counter" for decades. As soon as someone mentioned lawyers, it was conversation over, have fun talking with our attorneys...
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u/Pour_Me_Another_ 9d ago
We had a customer threaten to kill the employee he talked to before threatening to sue. Will be nice for that to be included in the case.
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u/Regnes 9d ago
Don't challenge a lawyer to a duel either.
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u/mousefeathers 8d ago
My job has people threaten lawsuits on an almost daily basis. I just give them our attorneys business card and tell them to have their people call our people, then I escort them out.
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u/gadget850 8d ago
Had that when I worked printer tech support. Told the guy that I had to stop communicating and he needed to talk to our lawyers. Next day he apologized and I fixed his problem. Told my boss, and he made it a policy.
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u/Tr0yticus 8d ago
I worked for a former Fortune 100 company, in a customer facing role. As soon as the thread turned to legal, we were instructed to end the conversation and escort the person out.
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u/spewing_honey_badger 9d ago
Amazon CS promised me I could keep and item than was sent to me in mistake (they sent the wrong item) and keep my refund because they left me hanging for weeks waiting for the delivery, just to find out they shipped the wrong thing and didn’t plan to have more of what I ordered in stock.
The refund didn’t process after a week, I contacted the support team again to find out what happened. The new CS rep I talk to says they can’t do both, if I want the refund, I have to return the item.
I told them if that was they case, they’ll be hearing from my credit card company as I was going to dispute the charge, and I was keeping the product as advised by the previous CS rep.
They processed the refund. I got to keep the item.
There are ways to “threaten” without getting legal involved.
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u/NuclearBurritos 8d ago
As a lot of people advised previously, be wary of making threats you're not willing to fullfill, and know that many companies, amongs them amazon will very likely go scorched earth when you file a chargeback with your CC. Meaning you might lose access to your account and everything it includes, such as digital goods and subscriptions, it's a terrible reality that there aren't many customer protections that actually do anything to protect a customer.
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u/spewing_honey_badger 8d ago
Oh no, they’ll make me quit Amazon?! /s
If I got to the point where I were going to file a dispute, I’d be totally ok with that.
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u/NuclearBurritos 8d ago
The quitting is not the bad part, being locked out of your devices and/or services you already paid for, for something that is not your fault, you didn't cause and they neglected to fix does sound extremely unfair, inconvenient and abusive.
Not being able to use your alexa devices because they refused to right a wrong is not wronger, is wrongest.
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u/spewing_honey_badger 8d ago
I hear you; I don’t have anything in Amazon. Actually, I might have a digital purchase of Borat from like 15 years ago, but I think I have a physical copy anyway.
I am acknowledging your point tho - some people have home automation, cloud storage, etc and this would be pretty frustrating in that case.
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u/NietszcheIsDead08 8d ago
Yes! “You’ll be hearing from my credit card company” is a correctly weighted threat. “You’ll be hearing from my lawyer” is too heavy for most situations.
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u/sandboxmatt 8d ago
Yep. The moment you ask for legal. We hang up or stop replying. We wont even facilitate forwarding anything, thats work for your counsel at that point
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u/MesaBit 8d ago
We had a client threaten a suit the other week. We immediately told her we could not service her property anymore and put in her record that she is a no service client. We’re one of three companies that provide our service within 200 miles. She now only has 2
Don’t ever threaten a suit, if you’re serious then go get a lawyer and let the lawyer talk to the business. The threat will ALWAYS backfire.
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u/tunaman808 8d ago
Yep. A lot of hotels instruct their front desk agents to cut off all communication with guests who threaten legal action, even if it's pretty clear that the guest is just mad and blowing off steam.
There are many such stories in /r/TalesFromTheFrontDesk
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u/Ok_Bug_6470 7d ago
My brother loves to do this when he talks with hospitals when my Mother goes to the ER. I’ve tried and tried to explain to him that they deal with that threat several times daily and have policy for it. As soon as those words are uttered it’s not a pleasant experience for her.
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u/SpartArticus 5d ago
Yeah when i was working at HR block a karen and her husband got upset and there taxes immediately stopped getting filed
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u/staplevoid 3d ago
Had a landlord try this on me once, mentioned suing over a deposit before even sending a written request first. Property manager just stopped replying to emails entirely and made us go through their attorney. Took three extra months and cost more than the deposit was even worth.
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u/adoreroda 9d ago
I think people don't realise that unless the potential payout for what you're suing for is worth it, you will ultimately spend way more money on lawyer fees and get nothing in return.
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u/chicknfly 8d ago
I met a woman n Reddit a few years ago who was a well connected lawyer in my city. I won’t get into why things didn’t work out, but I’ll add what didn’t help the situation. We were going for a walk, and she was in interjecting observations of random petty laws being broken around us while simultaneously telling me a story about a major case she was handling involving a major manufacturing company.
I wouldn’t piss her off, and by extension, I wouldn’t piss off any lawyer.
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u/LidiumLidiu 8d ago
I had this happen before, a guest at the hotel I work at last year was upset about how we only had two accessible rooms, he didn't like his and wanted the other but it was rented. He demanded a suite (which has stairs to get up to it and his son was in a wheelchair) but they were also rented. So he threatened to sue, I inquired if he was serious as I wouldn't be able to help him any further and he insisted he was going to sue if I wouldn't give him the suite upgrade and comp his room. So I gave him my GM's card and told him I couldn't help him any further, he demanded I call my manager, I pointed to the card. He demanded I move his rooms or call my manager there right then and there, I pointed to the card. He demanded the room be comped at the very least, I pointed to the card, apologized that I could no longer help with his reservation and offered him corporate's number as well. He took the number and stormed off, I was in the middle of writing an email to my GM when the call from head office came in, I told the woman on the phone what happened, said he mentioned he would sue if I did not comply with his demands and I could no longer help him. Woman from head office said I could no longer help him and that she would inform him of such and that should he threaten me or be intimidating to call the police to have him removed and that she would be emailing relevant managers for my property.
My GM came in early that morning, talked to me about the incident and the emails and her call from head office at 5 am (incident was closer to midnight) and then asked his room number. She went and DNRed him instantly and told me to fetch her when he comes down in the morning. I didn't see the following interaction but I heard the man left with his tail between his legs and his membership was revoked and he was DNRed from a lot of the hotels he would normally frequent. He shouldn't have threatened to sue.
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u/magic_man_iac 8d ago
I saw a situation like this while I was standing in line at customer service at Disney World. I have no idea what the woman was complaining about but once she realized she had painted herself into a corner you could visibly see her slump.
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u/exceive 7d ago
I remember middle school kids constantly threatening to sue over pretty much everything. Like it was some kind of magic curse. I was homeschooled at the time (early 1970s) so it was just neighborhood kids.
I didn't know what it meant. I looked it up and it turns out it just means getting a court to work something out. Yeah, unpleasant and expensive, but no. You aren't going to sue because I called you out for cheating in a game. And if you do, all is going to get you is a judge saying "well maybe stop cheating so much or get better at it. And you? Be more polite calling his sorry cheating ass out. Now go pay your lawyers more money than you can conceptualize at your age."
I didn't say that, exactly. But I did laugh at kids for threatening to sue. Which they did A LOT in the early '70s.
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u/Tiny_Hovercraft_6692 7d ago
This is a bit of an oddly useful thing in therapy with difficult folks.
"You didn't do shit, I'm gonna sue"
"okay be ready for a lot of people to read to about your affair."
Not referencing an actual case of mine
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u/itssoonice 6d ago
Happens all the time.
Once we are threatened with a lawsuit you get to deal with the lawyer. Anything we could have done/assisted with/fixed/helped/mitigated is now over.
You will receive nothing besides the lawyers information. Many have entered no one has won to my knowledge.
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u/CtrlEscAltF4 6d ago
I work at a bank and this commonly happens and literally never had it ever prompted the reaction they expect. Then they think they're going to talk to the banks lawyers. Yeah no that's not how that works at all.
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u/LabronPaul 9d ago
"I have the constitutional right to strike him if he disobeys me” - Tim Heidecker
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u/PNW_Misanthrope 9d ago
General YSK: don’t make threats you aren’t willing to follow through on.