Nor do the lawyers return their client's telephone calls. They may do so after repeated telephone calls or have their secretaries or paralegals return the calls. I have had hundreds of clients discharge their lawyers for this and other reasons. Incidentally, when a client discharges a lawyer and hires another lawyer, the client does not pay any lawyer's fees to the discharged lawyer. The new lawyer pays from his fee the discharged lawyer for the time spent on the case.
Incompetent lawyers hurt their clients all the time.
They miss important deadlines. They don't know how to properly investigate their client's claim. They don't spend enough time preparing the case. And believe it or not, many lawyers don't know what their client's case is worth. These mistakes, and many others, result each year in people recovering less compensation than they are entitled to.