'[Frank] tried to throw me under the bus': Client refuses to listen to lawyer's advice, costs his company millions of dollars, lawyer saves the day with a backup plan

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Oct 9, 2024 8:00 AM EDT

Protecting yourself should always be your number one priority in the working world. This story serves as yet another reminder of that fact, which applies to all industries, but in this case, we're talking about a diligent lawyer and his pompous client.

This thread was posted to Reddit by Calledinthe90s, who recounted a story involving his client, Frank. Frank worked for a real estate corporation that was seeking money after one of its buildings collapsed. Frank was warned by the Original Poster (OP) about an upcoming deadline to sue, after which he claimed the insurance company would outright ignore any form of contact and would deny payments. Of course, Frank felt he could handle this himself, missed the deadline, and even tried to throw OP under the bus for what ultimately transpired. Thankfully, during the unfolding of events, the lawyer had his own back and prepared a plan in case Frank was up to no good (which, of course, he was).

Keep scrolling below for the full saga. For more, check out this post about a coworker who got back at the office lunch thief.

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    Cheezburger Image 10413992192
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

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    Revenge on a client who tried to throw me under the bus
    via Calledinthe90s
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    I was pushing forty, and I'd learned a lot of lessons in more than ten years of legal practice. But one of the most important lessons I learned was from an older lawyer that I worked for as a summer student, after the second year of law school.
    via Calledinthe90s
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    "A lawyer has three duties," he told me, "first to himself, second to the court, and last, the client. Always make sure you come first, and the client comes last." The reason?
    via Calledinthe90s
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    "Because clients will you," he said, "they'll throw you under the bus without thinking twice." I should have stayed with this lawyer, but being young and an idiot, I had to go work downtown,
    via Calledinthe90s
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    and I'm still downtown now, but fortunately for me, I remembered this lesson, and it came in handy many years later when a client really did try to throw me under the bus.
    via Calledinthe90s
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    My client was this mid-sized company that did this and that and owned things here and there, not big enough to be listed, but it did have a pretty sizable real estate portfolio, and one day a building they owned burned to the ground. The company wanted to collect on the insurance, so they told Frank, a veteran salaryman, to deal with it.
    via Calledinthe90s
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    Frank was close to sixty and thought he knew what he was doing. He didn't need me to help him with the insurance claim, he told me; he had everything under control. Besides, lawyers are expensive. Some guys really get off
    via Calledinthe90s
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    on not paying legal fees, and Frank was one of those guys who gloated over every penny that he managed not to pay to the lawyers. I dealt with Frank a lot, and he was always nickel and diming me.
    via Calledinthe90s
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    "The insurer is going to you," I told Frank. It was only by luck that I even knew about the fire and the loss because Frank had not asked for my help; he'd just let it slip one day, and since then, I'd kept on top
    via Calledinthe90s
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    of him, trying to get him to smarten up. I'd had to fight to get him to send me the proof of loss form to make sure he hadn't messed that up. Frank lot, and I wondered sometimes up a how he had a job. But the proof of loss was okay, at least, so that was one less thing to worry about.
    via Calledinthe90s
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    "You don't know that," he said. I could tell he just wanted to get me off the phone.
    via Calledinthe90s
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    "I'm paid to know when insurers are trying to my clients," I said, "and the insurer is going to ● you. They've been stringing you along for ages with requests and questions and paperwork, but
    via Calledinthe90s
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    they aren't going to pay you. Not unless you sue them." But Frank said he knew what he was doing, that it was all under control, and besides, he got along with the adjuster so great.
    via Calledinthe90s
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    "The limitation period expires in two weeks," I said, "and once that two weeks pass, it will be too late to sue. The moment that limitation period expires, they will stop taking your calls. You'll get a final email saying sorry, you're out of time, and that will be that. Don't
    via Calledinthe90s
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    leave this till the last minute. Let me sue right now, and you'll have the money in no time." Frank was like sure, fine, whatever, don't bother me I got this blah blah blah,
    via Calledinthe90s
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    and he got off the phone as soon as he could. I sent him the usual email with clear warnings and recommendations, which he ignored. I sent the email again,
    via Calledinthe90s
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    and then again as the limitation period approached, and again a couple of days before the deadline. "I'm going to be at trial, and you won't be able to reach me," my final email said, "but you have to sue. You have other firms on your list, so pick one and sue." He didn't bother to reply, and I went off to do my trial.
    via Calledinthe90s
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    The trial lasted a couple of weeks, and no email from Frank. Then a month passed, and another month, still no email. I figured he must have sorted things out. "Maybe Frank was right after all," I said to myself, and then my phone rang. It was Frank.
    via Calledinthe90s
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    "Remember that fire insurance thing we spoke about?" We'd only spoken about it like a dozen times. I figured he was calling up to gloat, so I cut to the chase. "So they paid out. That's great, Frank. You were right."
    via Calledinthe90s
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    He asked me what I was talking about, and could he see a copy of the claim?
    via Calledinthe90s
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    "What claim?" I said. "The claim against the insurer. You know, that claim." "Does that mean the insurer didn't pay?" I said. He hung up on me, and then a few minutes later, my computer dinged, and there was Frank's email, talking about how we spoke, and he told me to sue,
    via Calledinthe90s
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    and he was worried when I hadn't sent him a copy of the claim, so he was following up to get a copy of the claim. I emailed him back. "I take it that the insurer didn't pay you, just like I told you they wouldn't, and now that the limitation period is expired, they told you to jump in the lake,
    via Calledinthe90s
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    leaving you with a loss in the millions. Is that it?" I'd made a mistake by not going over Frank's head when he wouldn't listen to me, but if I'd gone over Frank's head, I never would have received another file from him, so I didn't.
    via Calledinthe90s
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    But that was then, and this was now, so I CC'd Frank's boss and his boss's boss, plus I CC'd Bill, the client's in-house counsel. Bill acknowledged my email right away and called me later that day.
    via Calledinthe90s
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    "Frank messed up," he said, "we know that. He's an idiot. So what do we do?" "So his excuses didn't work?"
    via Calledinthe90s
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    "Nope." Bill explained that they'd summoned Frank to a boardroom, but his story didn't add up, given all the warnings I'd sent him. Besides, there would have been no reason for him to keep emailing the insurer if he'd told me to sue;
    via Calledinthe90s
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    once the file goes to legal counsel, Frank's role was over. The company knew Frank was them. "So that's it, then?" Bill said, "we just lost a couple of million bucks?"
    via Calledinthe90s
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    "It's okay," I said, explaining that when I realized that Frank was going to up, I issued a claim against the insurer. Because I'd made Frank send me the proof of loss a while earlier, I had enough information that I could sue to preserve the cause of action. Not a great claim and short on details, but good enough.
    via Calledinthe90s
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    "You sued without instructions?" Bill said. Lawyers aren't supposed to sue without instructions because if you do that, you're personally liable for whatever costs the other side incurs. It's a big deal to sue without instructions.
    via Calledinthe90s
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    "Yup," I said, "I sued without instructions." I pulled up a copy of the claim and emailed it to him as we spoke. "It's a little rough," I said, "but we can always amend."
    via Calledinthe90s
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    "Thank God!" Bill said, "can I leave it with you?" Of course he could. The insurer was a sitting duck, and I knew I'd collect from them, no problem. A few days later, I got a call from another guy who worked for the client, a guy I didn't normally deal with. They had a situation and needed my help.
    via Calledinthe90s
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    "I usually deal with Frank," I said, "what's up?" What was up was that Frank got called into another meeting, and they handed him a one-page letter,
    via Calledinthe90s
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    and then he put his little office things in a box, and security walked him past his co-workers to the elevator and escorted him downstairs to the parking lot. Bye- bye, Frank. He was too old to get another job, or at least, not a decent one. It was a life-changing
    via Calledinthe90s
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    event for Frank, but for me, he was just an anecdote, a cautionary tale that I tell young lawyers sometimes over beers, maybe too often, because I'm getting on in years and I have my favorite stories.
    via Calledinthe90s
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    I wasn't trying to get revenge on Frank, not at all, and I would have felt a bit sorry for him if he hadn't been trying to throw me under the bus. But the guy who replaced him was great and never nickel and dimed me, so it was all good.
    via Calledinthe90s

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