Originally Posted by
Pelican 
I see lawyers as business professionals. As business professionals, they are interested in turning a profit.
Which lawyer do you think will make more money: One who tells his client what he wants to hear and makes him feel better about his *mistake*
OR
A lawyer who brow beats his client and tells him how careless, reckless and ashamed he should be?
Which lawyer will the client call if he happens to make another *mistake* involving alcohol?
My boyfriend (M) is currently in a legal battle for full custody of his daughter. (I am not going into detail about the case, but I will say that he has no intention to keep her from her mother, he's trying to protect her from her mother's highly inappropriate decisions regarding overnight sleeping arrangements.)
M's ex's attorney has told her that now that her boyfriend bought the gun cabinet for his extensive formerly-unlocked gun collection, that my M doesn't have a case, so she doesn't have to change any of her behavior.
That was what they wanted to hear, so her boyfriend has paid the attorney his set-price up-front fee for the custody battle. Now it doesn't matter whether this lawyer wins the case or not - he got his money.
He's not charging a large legal fee, he's not being paid enough to dig into her past and figure out what they can use against M and what M could use against them... He's relying upon the honesty of his client to determine the course he'll take for the case, in the hope that she cares enough about the case to tell the truth and do some legwork and lead him in the right direction.
If she doesn't tell her lawyer the truth... Well, then the defense her lawyer uses will not be based on the truth. It's as simple as that.