Question: I hired a lawyer in the hope that she would be able to get my case settled, but she hasn’t. Does this mean she is doing a bad job?

Well, I have heard this sort of thing before.  And what is interesting is that sometimes I have heard the following sorts of inconsistent statements come from the same person: "My lawyer keeps charging me to attend more and more depositions and hearings and is doing more and more work;" "My lawyer wants me to settle for less than I think I should receive."  Frankly, these sorts of comments are a lot more typical than one might assume.  I have seen a lot of people take unreasonable settlement positions and demand that their attorneys hold tight without "giving in" in negotiations.  And, those same people act almost as if they are surprised when the lawyer is not able to settle the case on what may appear to the lawyer to be an unfair position to begin with.  Then, when the lawyer has to do a lot of additional work to have the case litigated, the client is upset.  A case can only settle when both sides agree, and if they don't agree, the logical outgrowth of that situation is for the case to take longer and involve a lot more work on the part of the attorneys.  So, in many situations where a client would like to reduce the amount of time and money involved in litigating a case, the best way to do that may be to adopt a less demanding settlement posture.  It is not my contention that people should generally settle cases for less than they are due, but I firmly believe that many cases can be settled on a "win-win" basis if both parties are reasonable and are willing to compromise fairly.  That is not always the case, obviously, but it frequently is.