One of the main things you will see when perusing attorney commercials is the word “experienced”. After all, who wants to be a part of the learning curve of a new attorney? The practice of law is difficult, and each area of law represents it’s own difficulties. Your basic lawsuit has rules for which rules apply. Does your case involve state law or federal law? Which state? Do you know the local rules for that county? Didn’t fill out the local form that only exists locally? Too bad. Motion denied.
Being experienced matters. I say that as an attorney in his sixth year of practice. But as the level of my experience increases, I learn more about how the system functions, what the process entails, and see my fellow practitioners differently. I now realize that LEARNING from your experience matters, and there is not shortage of attorneys three decades in who have learned little from their wins and losses, other than new ways to get you to part with your money. One study notes that attorneys with more experience cannot predict results better than attorneys with less experience. It states:
The data did not support the hypothesis that more lawyers with more legal experience associates with better calibration relative to lawyers with less legal experience – years of practice “does not count for much, as far as calibration goes”;
In other words ” An interesting study written up in Psychology, Public Policy, and Law found that lawyers are not good at predicting case outcomes. They tend to be overconfident in predicting how cases will turn out and, even when considering how their cases went in retrospect, they think they turned out better than they did.”-from http://blog.aboutrsi.org/2010/training-skills-techniques/lawyers-overconfident-about-outcomes/
Article Source: Goodman-Delahunty, J., Granhag, P., Hartwig, M., & Loftus, E. (2010). Insightful or wishful: Lawyers’ ability to predict case outcomes. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 16 (2), 133-157 DOI: 10.1037/a0019060.
