Control over Client: How to Make Expert Knowledge Visible for Lay People

Abstract

This article explores how Russian lawyers take control over their clients. The lawyer-client relations present interaction between possessors of expert knowledge and laymen, in which the issue of trust is particularly acute. In fact, lawyers are sellers, who know everything about their goods, while clients exist in a situation of uncertainty. Citizens rarely use legal services and therefore are poorly informed about them. This is why they take lawyers with a pinch of salt. The primary goal of each lawyer is to earn confidence of clients. Otherwise, clients will either consult another specialist or will hold back important information from the lawyer and question every of his/her actions. The lawyers' mission in the interactions with customers resolves into receiving a carte blanche for governing their actions without giving any guarantees on final results. Customers tend to judge the quality of lawyers' work by the outcome of a case. Lawyers in their turn understand that not every case can be «won». Thus, they see their main mission in socializing clients into legal reality and reducing their expectations. During the consultation, lawyers demonstrate not only knowledge of the law but also possession of the insider's information about how the system works and how one should navigate inside it. Lawyers show that the system is unpredictable and uncertain, what helps to reduce personal responsibility for the outcome of the case.