Attorney Appearance Services and the attorneys who work for them often get a bad rap. This is probably due to any number of reasons, but the most common ones are 1) a prior bad experience with being or using an appearance attorney or 2) a prior bad experience with having to represent a client in a proceeding where the other side is represented by an appearance attorney. These bad interactions may be the result of some misunderstandings about what Attorney Appearance Services are and what they do -- and what they should not do. Let's start with what an Attorney Appearance Service is. Appearance services are brokers who work as intermediaries with law firms that need a local attorney to represent them court, usually, though not always, in a preliminary matter such as a return date on a warrant in debt, garnishment, or unlawful detainer. Appearance services may also work with "legal insurance" firms that provide attorneys for more complex court appearance, typically in the traffic and misdemeanor case. This later category needs to be separately considered, so for present let's stay with civil court appearances for other than a trial. What are the benefits of using appearance services? Primarily, having an appearance attorney present to accept a default judgment or request pleadings can save the lead attorney down time for travel and waiting in court -- and time is money. Apart from that, appearance attorneys often know the local courts better than an attorney who does not practice in a jurisdiction regularly. What are the benefits of being an appearance attorney? Well, again its the time is money concept. If you have free time -- perhaps because you are moving one phase of your career to another or just "slowing down," being an appearance attorney can be an easy way to pick up some extra cash. Likewise, if you regularly appear in a local court for your own cases, having a few appearance cases on the same docket can mean earning extra for very little effort. There is another benefit to being an appearance attorney that may not be so obvious, but especially for new attorneys or those new to a jurisdiction, its a good way to get the lay of the land. Visiting courts to see how different judges move their dockets and respond to certain situations is valuable experience. Getting paid to do this is even better. So, what are the pitfalls of using or being an appearance attorney? Well, they fall into two categories -- ethical pitfalls and practical ones. The ethical pitfalls stem from a few misconceptions about what an appearance attorney is. The first misconception is that the appearance attorney is "merely a warm body" to receive the instructions or the judgment of the court and convey that, through the appearance service, to the "real" attorney. This is not the case. When you agree to serve as an appearance attorney, you are agreeing to appear in court to represent the client of the attorney that engaged the services of the broker who matched you with the case. You owe that client the same duties of competence and diligence as you would any other client. This means being prepared for the hearing by doing due diligence. Check to make sure that the hearing is set for the date, time and court provided to you. If you are representing the plaintiff, check to make sure that service was had on the defendant and how it was obtained. Check also to make sure that the appropriate documents were included in the filing -- notices and affidavits for landlord/tenant issues and garnishments, proof of damages for cases where a default may be obtained, etc. If you are representing a defendant, check when you arrive at the court to see if the party is there. Often, debt-consolidation firms will arrange for an appearance attorney to request a continuance and not advise the client that the presence is not necessary. Be ready to explain to the client what will likely happen and what actually does happen. The second misconception is that being an appearance attorney does create a potential for conflicts. This is simply not so. As already indicated, the appearance attorney represents the client -- not the attorney that engaged the services of the appearance broker. Thus, you cannot ethically represent a party even in an appearance if you represent the other party in another active matter or have information from a prior representation of the party. For example, you have been offered an appearance of ABC Credit Buyers LLC in a garnishment of an unpaid debt of Debby Debtor. You previously represented Debby in an unrelated tort action. You know that Debby received a large structured settlement and have the name of the servicing agent for the payments. You cannot appear for ABC because you have confidential information that would assist them in recovering the debt owed to them. Finally, there is the misconception that an appearance attorney is a "one and done" deal. Typically, it should be provided that the attorney who engaged the broker has filed an appearance with the court. For plaintiffs, this is rarely an issue as the attorney has signed the complaint or other pleading, and this constitutes an appearance. When representing a defendant, however, it is frequently the case that the attorney who uses the broker has not noted an appearance in the case and may not even be licenses to practice in the jurisdiction. If you appear in the case and it is not resolved at the hearing that day, the judge can and very likely will require you to appear at a subsequent proceeding. The practical pitfalls should be fairly obvious. First, appearance fees are rarely lucrative. Indeed, you should be wary of a fee that seems too good to be true. Thus, unless you are going to be in court anyway or have a large number of appearance cases (and it takes time to climb the competitive latter for the big accounts), you are likely not going to be compensated for your time at anything like you would get for appearing directly for a client. Second, while the overwhelming majority of appearances go easy -- default judgment is the most common result -- they can go sideways fast. If you are not prepared to deal with a situation not covered by your instructions, the judge is not going to happy. Now a brief word about appearing for "legal insurance" firms. As indicated above, these typically are going to be traffic or misdemeanor cases and the fees are decent -- often several hundred dollars. However, be advised that you will be expected to earn that fee, and this usually means knowing what can and can't be negotiated with the Commonwealth's Attorney and which judges will accept the desired result and which won't Let's end on a positive note, just so you don't think we are dissing appearance services. Having attorneys to help move a civil docket with dozens, sometimes hundreds, of cases where default judgments will be the norm, is actually a valuable part of what makes our court system work. Like court-appointed attorneys, the appearance attorneys are underpaid for the work they do, but are also undervalued for that work. | 
