#24 - Concept Reference, Must Be True

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation
(See the complete passage discussion here: lsat/viewtopic.php?t=10971)

The correct answer choice is (C)

This question is fairly verbose, and would benefit from simplification. The stem asks why, under LRCWA’s recommendations, lawyers would find it difficult to determine whether to take on a case. Passage organization is key: the author describes why uplift agreements are burdensome to lawyers in the third paragraph, which is likely to be particularly useful in validating the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (A): The author never mentions the length of time that a trial may last as a variable lawyers must consider (it probably is, but it is not something discussed in the passage).

Answer choice (B): The author indicates that lawyers must investigate the financial circumstances of their clients, but not that clients would be reluctant to reveal such information.

Answer choice (C): This is the correct answer choice. If the costs of handling a case are unpredictable, it would be difficult for lawyers to gauge in advance if it’s fiscally responsible to take on the case.

Answer choice (D): While uplift agreements may only be used as a last resort (lines 24-25), this requirement does not explain why lawyers would have difficulty determining whether to take on a case.

Answer choice (E): Investigating whether a client is qualified to enter into an uplift agreement would be onerous, but it would not necessarily take time away from investigating the legal issues of the case. This answer choice contains a speculation for which no direct evidence is offered in support.

[lanereuden]

Re: e Speculation but not really.

would be forced to investigate not only the legal issues affecting any proposed litigation, but also the financial circumstances

There’s no way that doesn’t require allotting time to an activity not otherwise done. I mean, unless you are saying they could have just bought more resources (employees) to handle it. ?

[James Finch]

Hi Lane,

Since we don't know and aren't given the breakdowns of lawyers' time commitments, we can't make any assumptions about whether investigating client qualifications would take away from the time investigating legal issues; they're not necessarily a zero-sum game. Continuances exist for this reason; more importantly, the question asks us to name something that was explicitly stated by the passage, rather than make an inference. Only (C) gives us that.

Hope this helps!

[spsa1000]

Hi! May I ask for clarification of what the question is asking and what the answer is saying?

The question asks for a reason why the lawyer might have difficulty in determining whether a prospective client was qualified to enter into an uplift agreement.

The conditions (qualifications?) for entering into the uplift agreement are: there are no other possible arrangements and the lawyer is satisfied the client cannot otherwise afford the legal services.

Answer C reads to me as stating that it would be difficult to determine what the uplift fee would be because of the changing costs of litigation and thus total cost of service. This does not strike me as relevant to determining whether the client is qualified to enter into an uplift agreement; rather, C seems to be stating that an original agreed upon fee might not reflect the services eventually required.

To me, that does not have to do with the conditions necessary to determining whether a prospective client qualifies for an uplift agreement. If the client cannot afford the legal services then what would changing hours have to do with it? My understanding is the uplift fee arrangement is a contingency fee arrangement which pre-determines a percentage of the damages the lawyer receives in exchange for the risk taken of not otherwise receiving any fee in the case of an unsuccessful case.

[Adam Tyson]

Breaking down this question, spsa1000, we see that it asks for something "given by the passage." That means the answer will be something that the author said, and we should be able to find text that answers the question.

So, what are we looking for that was given by the passage? "(A) reason for the difficulty a lawyer would have... ." So what we want is something that the author said makes it hard for a lawyer to determine whether someone is qualified for an uplift agreement. And what are the factors to be considered? Primarily whether the client can afford any other type of arrangement. So what would make it hard to determine whether the client can afford to pay some other way? The author talks about those difficulties in the third paragraph, and include that "the final cost of litigation depends in large part on factors that may change as the case unfolds." In other words, the lawyer may not know up front what the cost of handling the case may be, so it can make it hard for them to know whether the client can afford it! Even if you know how much money they have, if you don't know how much the job will eventually cost, how can you determine whether they can afford it or not?

That line is what directly supports answer C for this question. We can quote the passage and say "here is something the author said makes it harder for the lawyer to figure out whether the client qualifies for an uplift arrangement under the LRCWA's proposal."