The Absentee Lawyer Problem: When Your Attorney Isn’t Being Fully Responsible for the Work

The Absentee Lawyer Problem: When Your Attorney Isn’t Being Fully Responsible for the Work

A growing number of divorce clients are unknowingly paying for work their lawyer never actually did. “Absentee lawyering” happens when attorneys offload substantive work to staff, contractors, or AI tools, then bill as if they personally handled it—without understanding or overseeing the result or adjusting pricing accordingly. There’s nothing wrong with delegation done right; two (or three) heads can be better than one when collaboration and technology genuinely improve quality and efficiency. But when delegation turns into detachment, clients get overbilled, under-served, and left with lawyers who don’t actually know their own cases. The solution? Hire lawyers who stay engaged, supervise their teams, and take personal responsibility for your case.

When you hire a divorce lawyer, you picture that lawyer digging into your case—reading every document, drafting your motions, crafting your arguments, and thinking strategically about your future. You expect your lawyer’s brain, not just their name.

But increasingly, that’s not what’s really happening.

Across Utah and elsewhere, too many clients are paying for what looks like a lawyer’s work but isn’t. Behind the curtain, someone else, a paralegal, assistant, junior associate, contractor, or AI system, is doing the bulk of the work, while the lawyer bills as if he/she personally did it. The lawyer stays comfortably detached, approving things he/she does not understand and signing off on work he/she didn’t create.

It’s what I call The Absentee (perhaps even absent-minded) Lawyer Problem — when your lawyer’s name appears in your filings, but his/her mind does not.

Delegation itself isn’t the problem. Good lawyers can and should rely on capable help; client’s benefit from that. But the difference between smart delegation and absentee lawyering is whether the lawyer actually understands, supervises, and takes responsibility for the work—or just pretends to.

What the Absentee Lawyer Problem Looks Like in Real Life

A lawyer tells you, “I’ve been drafting your motion.” Sounds good, right? Except what really happened is that a paralegal spent 30 minutes, pulled up an old template from another client’s case, swapped in your names, changed a few details, and sent it up the chain. The lawyer skimmed it for thirty seconds, signed it, and billed two hours for “review and revision.”

Another client emails her lawyer asking, “What’s the next step in mediation?” The reply looks professional but strangely generic, the kind of answer that could apply to anyone’s case. That’s because the lawyer never saw the email. It was written by an assistant using canned responses, with the lawyer’s name on the signature block.

Or take the mid-size firm “oversight illusion.” You’re cc’d on endless emails with your lawyer’s name at the top, but the lawyer is barely reading them. A paralegal or legal assistant handles everything behind the scenes. Documents go out with errors: wrong dates, wrong ages, even the wrong child’s name. No one catches them, because the person whose name is on the pleading never actually worked on it (he/she may not have even read it).

That’s the Absentee Lawyer Problem in action: the appearance of personal attention without the reality of it.

Why It Happens (and Why It’s Getting Worse)

The modern legal business model rewards this behavior.

Volume pressure is the first culprit. Too many divorce lawyers take on too many cases. When the calendar is jammed, delegation becomes survival. It’s easier to let staff “handle” things than to stay directly engaged.

Overconfidence is another. Some lawyers convince themselves they can outsource judgment. They think, “My paralegal knows what I’d say.”

Technology misuse plays a growing role. AI tools and automated templates make it easy to look productive without being thoughtful. Used right, those tools make a lawyer sharper. Used wrong, they make a lazy lawyer look busy.

Billing structure. Hourly billing rewards time “spent,” not quality of thought and analysis. When the goal is to show activity, delegation helps keep the meter running.

Complacency sets in. Once a lawyer stops personally grappling with the facts and the law, it becomes habit, the erosion shows, even as the lawyer becomes too accustomed to the path of least resistance to notice or care.

When your lawyer brags about “efficiency,” ask whether that means getting more done per dollar or spending less time thinking about your case.

Why It Matters (The Costs of Absentee Lawyering)

This isn’t just about principle; it’s about actual work product and performance.

When lawyers don’t understand their own filings, mistakes inevitably creep in. Facts get misrepresented. Arguments miss the mark. Deadlines get missed.

Judges and commissioners can tell when lawyers don’t know their own cases, and it shows in every hearing. A lawyer who hasn’t actually familiarized himself with the facts of your case and who has not had a substantive hand in preparing what is submitted to the court can’t answer the judge’s or commissioner’s questions clearly. A lawyer who relies on canned arguments will miss key winning or mitigating points and can’t adapt when the other side throws a curveball.

Courts notice. Judges and commissioners see when a filing reads like it came out of Mad Libs or was written by AI. They can tell when the lawyer is reading her own motion as if for the first time. That lawyer loses credibility, and you, the client, pay the price twice—in excessive fees and in less favorable rulings.

The end result? You lose confidence in your case and your representation, and rightly so.

Smart Delegation vs. Absentee Lawyering

Delegation itself isn’t the villain. In fact, it’s essential. Few good modern lawyers work entirely alone. The question is whether the delegation makes the lawyer more effective—or simply more absent.

Smart delegation looks like this:

  • The lawyer stays actively involved, aware of the facts and needs of each case, and reviews everything that goes out of the office. The lawyer is clearly guiding the process.
  • Both you and the lawyer know who’s working on what.
  • Paralegal and AI work is integrated into a coherent strategy.

Absentee lawyering looks like this:

  • The lawyer signs off on work he/she didn’t read and verify and revised himself/herself as needed or warranted.
  • The lawyer’s “efficiency” is really just disengagement dressed up as innovation.

There is a crucial difference between using help to work smarter and using help to work less.

The Two-Heads-Are-Better-Than-One Exception

There’s nothing wrong (and in fact, everything right) with a lawyer who leverages the “two (or three) heads are better than one” principle. The best lawyers invite collaboration and use technology to sharpen their preparation, judgment, and production, not replace it. When a lawyer uses an experienced paralegal to streamline discovery, or leverages AI to draft a cleaner, more accurate brief in less time, that’s not cutting corners, that’s adding value. The key is transparency and accountability. Clients should benefit from these efficiencies through higher quality, faster turnaround, or lower cost. The danger is when those same tools and helpers become camouflage for disengagement or overbilling. The difference between value added and being fleeced is whether the staff and technological support make the work better or just makes the lawyer less engaged.

Inside Baseball: How Lawyers Justify It to Themselves

Having been in the profession long enough, I can tell you: lawyers are expert rationalizers. Here’s how they excuse this behavior to themselves.

  • “My staff knows how I think.” No, they know how you’ve thought in the past but not necessarily what or how you think about the latest case and it’s challenges.
  • “It’s just boilerplate.” Until it isn’t — and the wrong clause ruins a case.
  • “Clients don’t want to pay for me to proofread.” They don’t want to pay for errors, either. And it’s not just proofreading, it’s editing, it’s formulating the arguments.
  • “AI saves time.”  Only if you review what it produces to verify the arguments are sound and compelling and that the authority cited is accurate and, if so, cited accurately. Otherwise, you’re likely to produce incompetent work.

That’s not efficiency. That’s abdication.

How to Spot the Absentee Lawyer Problem

You don’t need a law degree to see the signs. Once you know what to look for, it’s obvious.

  • You rarely speak directly with your lawyer. Everything goes through “the team.”
  • The lawyer’s answers are vague or generic.
  • Court filings include factual errors or odd phrasing that suggest copy-and-paste jobs.
  • You find incorrect facts or typos in your pleadings.
  • You hear “we” a lot — but you don’t know who “we” is.
  • The lawyer bills for “review and finalize,” but nothing changes between drafts.
  • Written communication sounds robotic or inconsistent, possibly AI-generated.
  • Your lawyer can’t summarize your case without looking at notes.
  • You get one-size-fits-all advice that clearly doesn’t fit your situation.
  • You’re billed for supervision you can’t see or verify.

These red flags don’t necessarily mean your lawyer is unethical, but they are signs you’re not getting what you paid for: a lawyer who’s actually engaged in the work you hired him to do.

What Real Oversight Looks Like

Here’s what good lawyering looks like behind the curtain.

Your lawyer may have a paralegal draft or an AI tool produce a summary, but then she owns it—reviewing, refining, and improving it until it’s right. You can tell because he understands every sentence and can explain it in plain English.

Good lawyers don’t hide who’s helping them. They’re proud of the good help they’ve found and cultivated. They’ll say, “My assistant will help gather the documents, and I’ll personally handle the analysis.” You always know where the buck stops.

A lawyer who takes responsibility says, “If something goes wrong, that’s on me.”

Judges can tell the difference too. The lawyers who’ve done their own thinking speak confidently and precisely. The lawyers who haven’t done so look like they’re reading off of someone else’s homework. It’s obvious which one earns the court’s respect.

How to Vet Your Lawyer (Before or During Representation)

If you’re hiring or re-evaluating a divorce lawyer, ask a few pointed questions up front.

  • “Who will actually do most of the work on my case?”
    If the answer is vague (“We have a great team”), press for details.
  • “How do you supervise your staff’s work?”
    A confident lawyer will have a clear process, not a vague, evasive explanation.
  • “Can I review drafts before they’re filed?”
    The right lawyer will say yes, and then actually send you the drafts first.
  • “How do you ensure quality when using AI or templates?”
    You’ll know immediately whether they’re thoughtful or reckless with technology.
  • “Do you personally read every document before it’s filed?”
    The answer should be an unqualified “Yes.”

These questions aren’t rude. They’re the questions of a smart consumer. A good lawyer welcomes them. A lawyer who gets irritated or acts offended by them is a bad one.

You’re paying for your lawyer’s expertise first and foremost. A supportive staff and technology stack may be essential to that lawyer’s effectiveness, but it’s no substitute. When you hire a lawyer, make sure you’re getting their brain, not just their brand.

Accept Nothing Less Than Real Engagement

The modern divorce lawyer has more tools than ever that can make the work faster and better. But those tools—staff, software, AI, etc.—only help when the lawyer stays engaged. When the tools replace the lawyer, clients lose. The day may come when thinking machines meet or exceed the skills of human lawyers (I personally believe it will, and in my lifetime), but that day hasn’t arrived yet. There is still nothing equivalent to a skilled human lawyer who is fully engaged in a client’s case.

Delegation done right makes your case stronger. Delegation done wrong weakens it.

You’re entitled to a lawyer who knows your case, owns his work, and stands behind every word filed on your behalf.

Utah Family Law, LC | divorceutah.com | 801-466-9277 

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