Counseling as a specific form of business communication in legal practice

Counseling is a specific form of business communication in legal practice. Counseling plays a special role in the activities of a lawyer (Latin advo-catus - legal counsel), designed to provide professional legal assistance to individuals and legal entities, as well as legal counsel, an employee of the legal service of enterprises, institutions and organizations.

The range of issues that a consulting lawyer has to face is usually very wide: these are civil law, labor law, financial law, land law, arbitration issues, etc. Therefore, he should be well aware of the current legislation and be professionally thoroughly prepared.

The work of a lawyer in counseling consists of several stages.

1. Listening to customer problems. First of all, a lawyer should carefully listen to the person who has come to him, give him the opportunity to describe the essence of the problem in detail and in detail. At this stage it is very important to position the client to yourself, to create a trusting environment for the conversation. According to psychologists, this requires:

- outwardly expressed attention, understanding, sympathy for the citizen, for his troubling questions, for the search for a way out of the difficult situation in which he fell;

- a clear willingness to help;

- a reminder that only he, a lawyer, can help a citizen, it is in his power and abilities. At the same time, of course, one cannot promise "golden mountains", but show real opportunities;

- persistently express the conviction that only by trusting a lawyer a citizen can solve his problems and there is no other way out.

2. Clarification of the circumstances of the case. After hearing the client, the lawyer should clarify the circumstances of the case that are legally important for making a qualified decision. It is necessary to critically analyze the information provided by the client, especially in cases where they are not documented.

It should be borne in mind that sometimes due to certain circumstances, the client doesn’t say anything, hides some details or simply doesn’t attach importance to them, and without them the picture of the situation described is not complete enough. The task of a lawyer is to clarify all these points.

Asking questions, he must be tactful, be correct and attentive to the client.

The lawyer may ask the client to provide him with the missing information and the necessary documents on the case. Sometimes the lawyer himself needs additional time to thoroughly study the problem, study the legal framework and practice solving similar cases.

Here is what the well-known lawyer M. Yu. Barshchevsky writes on this subject: “Do not be shy in front of a client that you do not know the answer to this or that question or part of the question. In our opinion, “omniscience”, besides the fact that it is unreal, causes great skepticism in normal people. A lawyer has the right and should tell the client directly that he would like to consult with any of his colleagues who are more competent than himself in this area on this issue. This is normal. It causes respect and trust of the client. Plus, it is this approach that insures the lawyer against an error. ”

3. Giving explanations, tips, recommendations. Having investigated the problem fairly deeply and comprehensively, a lawyer must express his competent opinion about its solution. At the same time, under no circumstances is he entitled to recommend actions contrary to the legitimate interests of the client.

According to experts, a lawyer’s advice should be clear and concise, clearly expressing what he frankly thinks about the pros and cons of the situation, as well as the possible outcomes of the judicial review of the dispute.

It is important that the lawyer’s response is convincing to the client; for this, appropriate arguments should be made to substantiate the expressed point of view.

During the conversation, you need to make sure that the client understood the lawyer exactly as he advised him, and not the way the client would like. It is also worth making sure that the client is aware of the possible legal consequences of certain actions based on the advice received.

If it turns out that the client did not understand or misunderstood the received recommendations, the lawyer is obliged to continue the explanatory work or to appoint a second consultation.

Of course, the lawyer is not immune from mistakes. It happens that after giving advice, he realizes that the recommendations made by him are wrong . In this case, the moral duty of a lawyer is to find a client, inform him about it and correct his mistake . A gross violation of professional ethics is obviously wrong advice of a consultant, as well as hasty or insufficiently thought-out decisions. A lawyer should carefully make legal assessments of a qualifying character if they are not truly final.

A lawyer is obliged to comply with another very important moral standard - not to disclose information received by him in connection with the provision of legal aid . A client who trusts him with his requests, problems, secrets, wants to be sure of keeping them, hoping for confidentiality of the conversation.

A lawyer leading the consultation should have self-control and self-control, be able to relieve psychological stress from those who came to see him, try to prevent the situation from escalating. It is known that lawyers often come up with complaints, with a feeling of bitterness and resentment over the evolving circumstances. Let's give an example.

It is known that the coal industry is one of the industries with high industrial injuries and, as a result, with a large number of workers who receive material compensation for harm to health. Separate enterprises of this industry have developed a difficult socio-economic situation associated with non-payment of wages and various monetary benefits for benefits. In the legal department of one of the largest joint-stock enterprises for the extraction and processing of coal are regularly consulted. Among the people who come to the reception, a lot of persons eligible for benefits, but do not receive them. Naturally, they come in an excited or even aggressive state.

They are negatively opposed to any official in advance, seeing in each of them the culprit of their troubles. Wanting to get an answer to the only question “Where is my money?”, People do not want to listen to any arguments and explanations, they are trying to speak out, throw off the burden of negative emotions. Here is a record of one of these dialogues. which took place between the legal adviser of the enterprise and its employee:

- Hello!

- Hello!

- I need a lawyer.

- I'm listening to you.

- For several months I have not been paid due compensation, they say: “No money”. Tell me, how can I get money?

- You need to make an appointment with the general director, give him your complaints or go to court.

- This is a long song! I need money now. I have nothing to feed my family!

- I understand you, but I am a lawyer, not a director of a company or a chief accountant. I do not have money, and I do not have your money.

- Do you know what prices are on the market now? There are no medicines in the hospital, you have to buy everything yourself. How do i live

- Understand, I can not help you with anything, I myself have not received a salary for several months and am in the same position. All that I can advise you is to write a letter to the general director or a statement to the court.

- I have nothing to feed the children! I need medicine! You refuse to help me!

This conversation can go on forever. And it is understandable that a person is embittered, agitated and does not accept the arguments cited.

In such cases, experts recommend using techniques to neutralize the psychological barriers of fear, wariness, mistrust, and hostility. For example, A. M. Stolyarenko in the book “Psychological Standards in the Work of a Lawyer” describes a set of known methods:

Accumulation of agreement.   He was proposed by Socrates and consists in the initial posing of such questions to the interlocutor, to which he naturally answers “yes”. If a person has said “yes” several times in a row, then he has a psychological attitude to consent and a tendency to say “yes” once again.

Demonstration of common views, assessments, interests.   Finding and emphasizing everything in common that can only be between a client and a lawyer contributes to their temporary psychological convergence. The general can be found in unity, similarity, similarity, comparability:

- age, sex, place of residence, fraternity, biography elements (education in a fatherless family, service in the army or navy, absence of parents, education in an orphanage, etc.);

- hobbies, leisure activities, cultural interests, classes in the garden area, attitudes to sports, etc .;

- understanding and attitude to the different events occurring in the country, one or another media reports;

- ratings of people, the presence of mutual friends, meetings at different times with someone and the relationship to him.

"Psychological stroking."   It is a recognition by a lawyer of positive moments in the behavior and identity of a partner in conversation, the presence of rightness in his position and words, the expression of his understanding. The essence of the reception - in any case, say good words, express approval, praise, without causing the listener suspicion of insincerity. It consoles self-esteem and enhances a person’s self-esteem, causes favoring a lawyer and a desire to trust him.

The final isolation in the dyad "we"   completes the process of increasing intimacy: "You and I", "we are with you", "we are together", "we are alone", "no one hears us", "we do not see." This is facilitated by a one-on-one conversation, the absence of strangers, an intimate atmosphere. The word "we" should not skimp, emphasizing the closeness and trustful nature of communication.

Sincerity demonstration.   A lawyer needs to prove that he was the first to believe a communication partner, respecting his difficulties. This should serve as a signal to the beginning of the manifestation of the response of sincerity and trust. Using more or less interesting information not naturally related to official or investigative secrets, a lawyer can accompany her with the words: “Now I will tell you what I shouldn’t say,” “only for you”, “only between us”, "I will tell you a secret", "do not tell anyone and do not let me down. Do you promise? ”,“ Confidentially ”. It is appropriate to accompany this approach to the intimate distance, the transition to a quiet voice, a whisper, touching the interlocutor.