Can a lawyer withdraw from a client at any time?

Can a lawyer withdraw from a client at any time?

"My lawyer has recently decided to stop defending me, citing an allegedly aggressive tone in one of my letters. Is there anything I can claim?

Richard, Geneva

Lawyers are legally bound to their clients by a retainer agreement. According to article 394 paragraph 1 of the Code of Obligations, a power of attorney is a contract by which the attorney undertakes, under the terms of the agreement, to manage the business for which he has been instructed or to render the services he has promised. The lawyer is responsible to his principal for the proper and faithful performance of the mandate. In addition, he must comply with the instructions received from the client, to whom he must report regularly. On the other hand, the lawyer is not obliged to obtain the result expected by his client: in this sense, it is said that the attorney has only an "obligation of means".

One of the special features of the mandate concerns the termination of the contract. The mandate may be revoked or repudiated at any time, particularly before it has come to an end. The party revoking the mandate need give no particular reason for doing so. Your former lawyer could therefore terminate the contract between you without having to wait for the end of the proceedings you had entrusted to him. There is, however, a limit to this principle: the revocation may not take place at an inopportune time. The party who revokes the retainer at such a time must compensate the other party for the damage it causes.

If you can show that the contract was terminated at the wrong time and that this has caused you damage, you can claim compensation. Your damage could arise from the costs you incurred in carrying out the mandate and which therefore lose their usefulness as a result of the termination of the contract; this damage could also, of course, consist of missed procedural deadlines due to the fact that you were no longer assisted. However, this compensation is not due where there is a serious reason for revocation. It will be up to your lawyer to show that the aggressive tone of your letter constituted a serious reason for him to terminate your contract.

Finally, it should be noted that the party wishing to terminate the mandate prematurely can protect himself against such claims for damages by giving reasonable notice to his co-contractor, thereby enabling him to make arrangements.