Access the full text.
Sign up today, get DeepDyve free for 14 days.
References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.
Noting the historical negative public perception held of attorneys, a 2 × 2 factorial design was created to assess the relative roles of legal competence and relational skill in the formation of client attitudes toward attorneys. Ninety-three subjects viewed a simulated, video-taped attorney-client interview in which the attorney possessed either (a) high legal competence and high relational skill, or (b) low legal competence and high relational skill, or (c) high legal competence and low relational skill, or (d) low legal competence and low relational skill. Analysis of questionnaires completed by the subjects after viewing the tapes revealed the attorney having high legal competence and high relational skill to be viewed as most expert, attractive, trustworthy, probable of satisfying the client, and being recommended and used in the future. The attorney having low legal competence and high relational skill was rated second on sixteen of the seventeen measures employed, indicating that relational skill contributes more to the formation of a client’s perception of his or her attorney than does the attorney’s level of legal competence. Implications of the results for the training of future attorneys are discussed.
Law and Human Behavior – American Psychological Association
Published: Dec 1, 1981
Read and print from thousands of top scholarly journals.
Already have an account? Log in
Bookmark this article. You can see your Bookmarks on your DeepDyve Library.
To save an article, log in first, or sign up for a DeepDyve account if you don’t already have one.
Copy and paste the desired citation format or use the link below to download a file formatted for EndNote
Access the full text.
Sign up today, get DeepDyve free for 14 days.
All DeepDyve websites use cookies to improve your online experience. They were placed on your computer when you launched this website. You can change your cookie settings through your browser.