I had a personal-injury case, and was referred to Harvey "Shep" Williams by another attorney in the field. The facts of the case are unique and the privacy of another person is involved, so I can't be more specific. Williams charges a hefty by-the-hour fee, and his office is on Connecticut Avenue. If I was impressed by those things, I shouldn't have been.
Williams said he wanted $5,000 up front to "investigate" the case. A bad sign, but I was desperate. Try not to go to an attorney when you are desperate. Never pay an attorney thousands of dollars merely to "investigate" a case. Particularly where the facts of the case are disputed (as they always are), and where there's no agreement that the lawyer will be using a private investigator (despite having my case for months, Williams never used an investigator) so that the attorney can make anything close to a reasonable decision as to what actually happened.
He handed my case to his only associate, who was then heavily pregnant. No one handled my case when she went off to have her baby, and they asked me for an extension. I gave it. Again, I was desperate. The young woman was soft-spoken (not what you want in an advocate), not aggressive, not impressive to the members of my family with whom she spoke. Williams was not a party to any of our conversations; yet when we arbitrated the fee he charged, Williams did not bring Ms. Soft Spoken, but testified himself as to what she had said to me. Now, how could he honestly do that?
Four months after I hired them and mere days before the statute of limitations ran out on the most important part of my lawsuit, they got an "expert opinion" from someone who charged a fraction of Williams's rate for a few hours of work, and immediately decided to dump the case. They also told me that if I got the police to give me an investigative report by the following Monday, they might reconsider. They told me this on the Friday evening before a holiday weekend. Then the following week, they sent me a bill for about $9,000 more than the $5,600 I'd already paid them. For what? A memorandum a few pages long, rejecting my case. One of the things he asked to be paid for was the summary of the facts of my case that I'd supplied to him--he claimed it was part of his work product.
During the arbitration, I was (again) unrepresented. In the midst of my testimony, apropos of nothing, Williams fired at me, "Your brother doesn't want you to bring this case." To get himself a lousy two or three thousand dollars more, this Dupont Circle attorney was willing to break up a brother and sister. Nasty.
1) If an attorney wants to be paid thousands merely to "investigate" a case, don't even consider hiring him. The attorney realizes that you can't find someone else to take your case, and he's no friend of yours. Painful as it may be to let the person who hurt you in the underlying matter get away with it, decide that you don't have a case. You'll hurt worse after paying such a lawyer to do nothing. Don't walk away. Run.
2) If an attorney wants you to pay big bucks to have your case handled by an associate, as happened here, don't walk away. Run.
3) If you really can't bear not to file a case and you're forced to do business with a lawyer like this one who wants to be paid to "investigate," make sure the retainer agreement spells out EXACTLY what you're getting for your money. Make sure they're required to tell you when the original payment runs out and that they must notify you in WRITING before spending another penny of your money. Draft the retainer yourself--and if he disagrees, wants you to sign his pre-printed form, don't walk away. RUN.
4) If the attorney, during your initial meeting, mumbles to himself, chuckles, lifts his head as if to say something directly to you, then changes his mind--this happened several times during my one and only face-to-face with Williams, before the arbitration--don't walk away. RUN.
If someone has stepped on you badly enough to put you in the market for an attorney, do not make matters worse by hiring Harvey "Shep" Williams. My nearly $12,000 says you'll regret doing so. read more