"Friends" Asking For Free Work

[TheChandler]

Name-changed to avoid id.

I've been contacted 8 or 9 times in the last 6 months by friends/acquaintencies/DH's family asking for free advice/services relating to my job. Its really annoying. These requests usually come at weekends or evenings or, in the case of DH's family, on social visits ie when I'm relaxing.

Not only do I not want to give them free advice, because it inevitably involves sifting through the complex and often very personal details of their problem, it could get me into hot water professionally, as there are certain rules of engagement you should adhere to, not least for insurance purposes in case you get it wrong.

And its usually stuff they wouldn't bother paying for ie it doesn't bother them enough to actually pay for proper advice, but they obviously see me as a free source they can turn to at any time (quite often the requests come via FB). It puts me in a really embarrassing position, and I simply directed the last couple to websites where they could read material themselves which would give them the answers they wanted. I am now being called "stuck up" and a "snob" by these acquaintencies. I mean, seriously?

Any advice on ways of stopping these damned annoying requests for "freebies" coming through in the first place? Quite often I find myself being forced to be polite and give some very general comments, it wastes hours of my personal relaxation time and they inevitably don't act on it anyway.

One of my in-laws asked me for tax advice at my own wedding reception!

And it was the first time I'd met him. I laughed at him.

My DH works in IT and we have all and sundry knocking on our door asking him to fix laptops infected with porn/viruses, sort out networking and internet issues etc. some are people we haven't met, neighbours we have never spoken to or dad's friend of a friend from the pub.
2 incidents stick in my mind- neighbour over the road asked 3 times to sort out her internet and home networking (works from home) each time he went over for an hour or so after work. All fine. Her DH was an electrician and my DH mentioned one day he needed a small job doing (already had the parts) he said yeah ok that will be £80 let me know when you want me to come this was said as DH was still under the table with cables in his hands.

The other one was a week before our wedding a neighbour and family friend sent their child to see us saying their internet wasn't working and their laptop was broken, could DH fix it? He has spent many, many hours doing odd bits for them in the past. He said not now we are a bit busy. The following week, at the wedding, neighbour says 'oh yes Mr pig, you still haven't fixed our laptop. When can I expect you?'

We stopped answering our door after that!

Pigriver bloody hell how freeloading, did your dh charge him. I would never do work for him again.

I get this too for my area of work.

Everyone thinks they are the exception to the rule. That because it's them, it's fine. That because they couldn't possibly afford me professionally, I'll understand.

The problem is that if everybody thinks like this, who do they think are my actual clients? Not real people? Only oligarchs? People I actively dislike? And everyone I like I should give it to for free?

One solution I've found is saying the following:

• I have very little time for my actual clients so I won't be able to deal with this until X date (name date far away in future.) Most of the time they forget and don't follow up.
• Take the time to send me the FACTS ONLY, over email. No personal information because that is misleading, and make it less than 250 words.
• Ask me some specific questions that you want me to answer.

From your OP I knew you'd be a solicitor. I get the same. Recently had someone I barely know (and really dislike!) ask me to set up a company for them and draft employment contracts which they can use to make their employees look self employed

Just muttered about my insurance and declined...

Tell them that someone at work gave some advice recently 'out of hours' and then ended up being sued personally. Your company has now issued an instruction to all of you not to risk your professional reputation and that of the company by giving 'free' advice. Thus you would be risking your job if you gave any advice 'out of hours'. But happy to talk to them whilst at work through the proper channels so please call me tomorrow. People are very irritating.

I'm a teacher, I spent weeks tutoring a friend's son for his GCSE and at the end she gave me a box of Celebrations for "being so kind". "Kind" came under the format of 1hr30 mins for 12 weeks, my resources and expertise. When she asked she'd said "Are you interested in any tutoring work?", I already had a lot on but because they were friends and I knew he was struggling I said yes.

I do wonder what part of it she thought I'd be "interested" in if it wasn't payment. I love my subject but having already taught it all day I'm not too desperate to teach in the time I should be seeing my kids. The average tutor for this charges between £20-£25 per hour.

The thing is, being a bit soft, that if she'd asked me to do a few hours and said she was skint or something I wouldn't have expected payment but the way she did it was misleading and sly.

I also knew from your op that you're a solicitor! I get the same. They always say never act for family or friends. I don't mind certifying documents for free and pointing people in the right direction of where they can get appropriate (not free) advice, but I don't do much else.
My firm allows mates rates for close family and friends of staff for res con plus certain big corporate clients get a discount on res con and staff get it for free. Tbh, other staff are the worst to act for, just because they're lawyers they think they know it all! They also take the piss when it comes to family and friends discounts such that I've had to put my foot down and restrict it recently which hasn't gone down well. I've said if they don't like it they can go elsewhere.
YANBU, just say you can't help as it's outside your specialism and send them on their way.

I like the ones who assume No Win No Fee is available for every type of litigation, even things like tribunal appeals where you have no chance of being paid by anyone even if you win hands down. Then they get all offended if you refuse to take the case on, as if you're being really greedy to want to be able to pay your rent.

And the ones who reckon they have the case of the century and they're doing you an incredible favour by letting you work hundreds of hours on it for free.

Yes, I politely send them on their way. I have occasionally asked if they would work for nothing.

Best not to get too embroiled in discussing it - just send people away. I give lots of suggestions for places they might get free legal advice or help or cheaper suppliers or litigation funders but I am not working for nothing. Why risk a no win no fee case when you've lots of other work which is 100% sure you will be paid? You don't get plumbers saying they are happy not to be paid if the leak is still there next week as the first thing they tried did not work.

I also agree with OP about the perception that all lawyers give 30 minutes' advice for free. Anyone who does is purely doing it to get work in, but the reality is that you can't give reliable advice on someone's problem without going through the whole thing with them and reading the documents.

I do a fair amount of my work on legal aid. I tend to point out to people that the pay rates are so dreadful that that's the equivalent of spending at least 50% of my time working for nothing anyway, so I'm definitely not doing any freebies over and above that.

I just say it's not really my area and would you like a recommendation?

I also find the passport photos a lite annoying. I do them fairly often and it usually ends up entailing me having to go out if my way in some manner either by staying in when I wouldn't ordinarily or meeting at a location I wouldn't necessarily be going to. Of course with friends this is fine but with random acquaintances it's frustrating especially as there is rarely any appreciation, rather an expectation that you ought to be delighted to have been "employed" in this manner regardless that you haven't so much as received a "thanks" for your time much less anything else.

I get this a lot too. I am also a solicitor and work in a very discrete area so when someone asks me about family stuff I really can't help. My DH gets it on the IT stuff as well but he does have an arrangement with an electrician friend where they knock off the value of work done for each other.

Personally I would never ask for mates rates - ecen with family - if they are giving me a professional service they should get paid their professional rate. I want to help my friends and family succeed in their business ventures and giving me freebies will not.

If it's randoms off the street who call and want me to sign something I just politely refuse. If it's a neighbour it's harder but I really feel that considering the disruption, taking time from other work even if the time doing the passport is not very long, being in, the effort of having to meet them and the like (I avoid even paid meetings where I can as they are so disrupting) it ought to be something like £250 per passport approval in terms of what hassle to me so when I do do it and they don't even thank me it does make me wish I'd just refused or charged. I think some people must sit around bored all day and the excitement of the day is meeting someone else so cannot understand you might not want to meet someone to sign something for them.

Just direct them to MN legal - it's free there!

Who do you think should sign passport photos then and should they be paid?!

Countersigning passport photos has to be the stupidest, most outdated load of codswallop on the planet.

Bullshit them about the extortionately expensive insurance you have to have nowadays before advising anyone and that they would have fill in all the required paperwork at the office before you could do anything because of that.

I would believe that.

Earlier this year there was a thread from a professional woman who had been asked to countersign a passport form for a friend (or possibly the friend's baby). She duly did so and completed it faithfully.

She was contacted by the passport office - 'friend' (ha) had falsified the form after she had countersigned it and forged her signature on further documents. Advice was obviously to tell the whole truth promptl y - is a deceitful friend who takes advantage worth risking your entire career for?

I am glad I am not on the list of approved professions, tbh. DH will be when he gets his charter, but maybe he should keep quiet about it.

It is an unfair system that you have to know the right sort of person to guarantee your passport application. Our Trust won't let GPs do them for patients even if they know them well in that capacity. So unless you're very familiar with your priest/rabbi/imam, who are most people supposed to ask?

How can the form be falsified after you've signed it?

It's a tricky one, passport forms. I bet there are lots of people who aren't friends with the 'right' sort of people. Who should they ask? If doctors already charge and the lawyer up thread thought £250 sounded a fair fee for them to do it-it will all be left to those professionals that can't charge!

But you came on my thread about the customer from hell being somewhat rude and giving legal advice in professional jargon, which I had to Google to actually understand.

I was a bit taken a back to be honest. I felt you were doing the I am a solicitor thing to invalidate not only myself but other people who had posted on the thread.

"I am a solicitor", well bully for you.

I've never had a problem getting countersignatures for passports for myself or dcs, but I remember a less well connected parent at the children's school having a terrible time. The children hadn't been there for long enough for any of the teachers to do it, GP wanted £25 per head, and she didn't know anyone from any of the traditional professions.

The stupid thing is that the countersignature could be from 'Any person in good standing in the community', but that's such a wishy washy description.

Some of these are crackers. Tsukuru Recently had someone I barely know (and really dislike!) ask me to set up a company for them and draft employment contracts which they can use to make their employees look self employed

wwwwd are you the poster who has posted several threads asking for legal advice on your employment dispute? Can I suggest you stop being so abusive to people who are trying to help you?

I do often question why people waste money on no-hope legal claims and then blame greedy solicitors. Some people of course simply won't listen to sense when you try to tell them that settling, or a compromise agreement might be a better solution all round, rather than rushing to court, all guns blazing, or getting into an argument with someone and trying to apportion blame rather than mediating towards a workable way forwards or workable solution.

I don't generally have a problem with passport applications, but I've also had change of nationality/immigration ones and mortgage related ones, and I'm not that happy to do them, due to the potential pitfalls.

I get this and I'm still only a law student! When I qualify I will be batting off freebie requests with something vague about conflicts of interest.

I do do it (passports) free for people I know but they never do anything back for me ever, not one iota of anything. However I don't think they do realise how for me it is so disrupting. In terms of the amount I would feel I needed for the interruption - yes £250. It's a silly system anyway as loads of people don't know anyone who can do it for them so it's a dreadful class problem which is utterly unfair on those who don't know anyone who will do it. I've done my cleaner's passports for 15 years and I've no problem with that of course as she works so hard for me, but all the random neighbours gets a bit much. If people kind enough to do passports then get in trouble for fraud because the person who brought it alters the form etc that is dreadful. It makes me even keener to refuse to bother.

There is a proposal for a voluntary new form of identification which I don't like the sound of - bit too big brother but I suppose that might end up being part of the solution.