Q24

[jiyoonsim]

This passage was TOUGH! And this question was even wordy!

Here is how I reviewed my wrong question (my answer being E, the correct answer being C):

The question is asking about a reason for difficulty of Austrailian lawyers in deciding whether their client is okay to do uplift agreement.

The key to this question is 3rd paragraph. First half mentions the difficulty mentioned from question. Bascially the "difficulty" is that lawyers will have to investigate legal issues and the financial situations of their client.

The other half mentions the reason of this "difficulty." It will be difficult because the final cost of litigation is subject to change.

So the other half is what this question is asking for.

I think I chose E instead of C, since I messed up the "difficulty" with "reason." Argh

[ohthatpatrick]

True dat. This is a wordy law passage, and a wordy question stem.

You nailed the window of proof: 3rd paragraph (leading with that lovely signpost, "UNFORTUNATELY") is where we begin the author's negative assessment of the uplift fee recommendations.

I think there were some keywords in the question stem and keywords in the passage that could have narrowed your window of proof even more.

The question stem is asking "why would it be hard for a lawyer to know whether a potential client qualifies for the uplift agreement?"

The 2nd paragraph had just ended by saying that the client only qualifies if he/she is financially unable to afford the regular cost of the litigation.

So the question is really asking "why would it be hard for a lawyer to know whether a potential client could afford the regular cost of the litigation?"

The keyword in the 3rd paragraph that tells you you're in the right vicinity is "onerous", which means "burdensome, unpleasant, difficult".

The process of determining the client's qualifications would be onerous because of lines 37-40.

Lines 37-40 are a strong match for (C). They are a weak match for (A), so I'm glad you weren't tempted. The estimation of a trial's length is not actually mentioned, even though we might ASSUME that (A) is true based on what we read in lines 37-40.

It's hard to find a strong match for choice (E) in the passage. It's closest phrasing would be, like you said, the first half of the 3rd paragraph. In that sentence, the author is saying that an uplift arrangement increases the workload for a lawyer. A lawyer always has to investigate the legal issues affecting the proposed litigation, but now the lawyer would also have to investigate the client's financial situations and study the predicted cost of the whole litigation.

So I'd say (E) is incorrect for two subtle reasons:
1. E says that investigating the client's finances would detract from the time spent working on the actual legal issues. However, the passage only implies that there is increased work (not that the increased work comes at the expense of the existing work)

2. E is really answering the question "why does the passage say it will be difficult for lawyers to enter into an uplift fee arrangement?" ... however, the actual question is saying "why does the passage say it will be difficult for lawyers to determine whether their clients are financially able to afford the litigation?"

I think the nuance of #2 there is what you were correctly seeing in your review. Good self-analysis!

[sumukh09]

Why is B wrong? If not all prospective clients revealed detailed information about their financial circumstances then wouldn't that be a difficulty posed to the lawyer since they would have to investigate the financial circumstances of their client? The passage says that this would be onerous for the lawyer according to line 36. Also, by saying "not least of which is the fact..." doesn't that imply that it would be less burdensome than other reasons the lawyer would find it difficult to determine if the prospective client would be qualified?

[genieb]

I was wondering the same thing about B. I think it's wrong though, because the passage did not actually spell out this possibility (even though this could happen). So it wasn't "given by the passage as a reason for the difficulty ..." per se.

Now when I look at answer choice E, I find it perfectly paraphrases line 36-40. I totally overlooked that part when I first read the passage.