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Client care:
Communication and service
Practice support
Enquiries/comments to:
Giles Watson
QLS Practice Support Manager
Tel: 07 3842 5853
g.watson@qls.com.au
Table of Contents
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Managing expectations.........................................32
8.
9.
Effective Communication......................................36
Client care is about much more than costs disclosure and fulfilling regulatory
Client care is about more than ethics. Honesty and integrity are important but
obligations. Rules and regulations only cover some service issues, and then
only provide a minimum benchmark. If you focus solely on a limited number of
minimum benchmarks, your chances of client dissatisfaction will remain high.
are taken as read and assumed by clients at least by the time they have
instructed you. Ethics provides a set of rules and principles to guide your actions in
a generalist sense, but they do not equip you for responding to the specific needs
of different clients. To provide good service, solicitors need guidance not only
from ethical rules or principles, but also directly from their own clients.
Manage expectations
Identify and address any assumptions both the clients and your own that could
lead to later misunderstandings or tensions. See section on managing expectations
One of the main concerns when clients retain lawyers is they feel they have lost
control and have handed over all responsibility to the lawyer. Fee-earners should,
therefore, ensure they keep the client regularly informed on the progress of the
matter, any changes to cost estimates, and any changes to timescales. Even if the
matter hasnt progressed, or if there are no changes to initial estimates, it is good
practice to stay in touch with the client just to reassure them that everything is on
track.
Many clients will leave a firm, not because of any problems with the quality of legal
work, but because a perception has arisen that they are not a particularly valued
client. Often this is a misperception, and the lawyer can be working very hard on
their case with considerable success. If the client is not advised of progress, or is not
included, a perception of neglect can occur.
Not everyone is a natural communicator, but skills and techniques can be learned
to improve your communications with your clients.
A large number of law firms would claim to do some or all of the above, but many would
struggle to tell you how. It is not enough for a law firm to claim to subscribe to these as principles;
a strategy is needed to ensure these principles are embedded in all of the firms activities.
A complete client care strategy should involve a mixture of the following:
Policies, processes,
procedures & checklists to
facilitate effective client care
Client needs should form the basis of all systems and procedures, and must also be
Does your practice culture support or hinder people in their efforts to provide a
A philosophy of continuous
improvement, using client
feedback
The importance of client service cannot be overestimated. Many lawyers find it surprising that,
according to research, around 75% per cent of the incentive for choosing one lawyer over
another is linked to service delivery, and only 25% to technical/legal expertise. In most situations,
clients will already expect a lawyer to know his or her law, so in choosing a lawyer, the level of
service will nearly always be more important.
Client care is important to your practice for a number of reasons; and can bring the following
benefits:
Fewer claims and complaints
Increased client retention
Client development and cross-selling services from different departments or practice areas
Increased referrals
Differentiation and positive brand appeal
Higher recovery rates (percentage of recorded time or work in progress actually recovered in
fees)
Potential for higher rates/fees
Improved practice morale and staff/partner retention
Client care is all very well, but you cant charge for it can you
Although many of the above benefits are acknowledged, many solicitors are still cynical about
the link between client care and profitability seeing client care as a bureaucratic drain on
both time and money, and making comments like, Client care is all very well but you cant
charge for it can you?.
You can of course charge for client care both in terms of increasing your rates and, if the client
agrees, though time costs for additional service-related tasks. As professionals, solicitors often
believe they are paid primarily or even solely for their professional expertise. This, however,
is not the case and in reality clients not only pay for a service but are willing to pay more for a
better service from their solicitor in the same way that they would pay more for a better service
from their builder, insurer, hairdresser or broadband provider.
Just as many of the most profitable companies in commercial industries are successful because
of their service quality, so client service can be a key driver of profitability for solicitors. Small
but significant improvements in clients perceptions of service quality can produce significant
improvements in some key practice measures, and even bigger differences in profitability. The
cumulative effect of the changes below which are by no means ambitious or unrealistic can
have the effect of doubling profitability.
10% increase in fee rates?
One of the challenges with client care and service is that client perceptions place an emphasis
on the negative. Here are some statistics, regularly repeated with only slight changes to the
figures in numerous reports or surveys.
it takes ten positive impressions to make up for one negative
80% of dissatisfied clients will tell someone else about poor service
over 80% of customers dont complain when they have a problem - they just dont come back
Satisfied clients might tell one or two other people of their experience. Dissatisfied clients are
Statistics such as these demonstrate the client care challenge: providing reasonably good
service most of the time might not be good enough. Because the importance of service failings
are exaggerated above good service in client perceptions, practices have to eliminate virtually
all service failings before any positive aspects of service are recognised. With client expectations
constantly rising, this is probably a more demanding challenge than most practices realise:
There is a big gap between good service and an official complaint, and your service doesnt
have to be that bad, by your own standards, to risk client dissatisfaction.
The challenge of keeping the customer satisfied applies to all industries, but evidence suggests
that solicitors have more problems than most. Here are some results from a survey by Which (a
consumer organisation) in England, in 2006:
a third of people think they receive poor service from their solicitor;
a quarter of those surveyed think their solicitor doesnt listen to their opinion;
a third dont feel they are told enough about how much they will be charged; and
more than half the people surveyed said they received no pre-estimate of fees at all; and
Although these figures relate to solicitors in England, are solicitors in Queensland doing any
better? In 2006, QLS and the LSC received a total of 8696 enquiries. Although not all calls and
enquiries will be fair indications of poor service, these figures are at least the equivalent of
enquiries to the Legal Complaints Services in England. In a state of c8,000 practitioners, there
is definitely room for improvement in relation to client care, service and communication,
especially if, as surveys suggests, the vast majority of people prefer not to complain.
There are a number of reasons for client cares relatively low profile amongst solicitors:
Solicitors are instinctively less interested in service issues than harder technical, legal or
intellectual matters;
Service issues rarely seem as urgent as either fee-earning or other practice concerns;
Both practices and individual solicitors assume they are already good at client care; or
Practices do not understand the different elements of client care, and do not know how to
These reasons are all barriers to effective client care and service, whether they are true for the
practice as a whole or just for a minority of solicitors. The route to overcoming these barriers is
usually a greater focus on listening to clients. Once solicitors truly listen to their clients, both the
importance of client care, and the required actions become much clearer.
To get your colleagues to accept the need for the practice to focus more on client care, you
might need to first directly challenge complacency. Here are a few questions to consider:
Are you happy with your client retention rates?
Are you confident about introducing clients to all of your colleagues? and that all your
One of the challenges with client care and service is that client perceptions place an emphasis
on the negative. Here are some statistics, regularly repeated with only slight changes to the
figures in numerous reports or surveys.
it takes ten positive impressions to make up for one negative
80% of dissatisfied clients will tell someone else about poor service
over 80% of customers dont complain when they have a problem - they just dont come back
Satisfied clients might tell one or two other people of their experience. Dissatisfied clients are
Statistics such as these demonstrate the client care challenge: providing reasonably good
service most of the time might not be good enough. Because the importance of service failings
are exaggerated above good service in client perceptions, practices have to eliminate virtually
all service failings before any positive aspects of service are recognised. With client expectations
constantly rising, this is probably a more demanding challenge than most practices realise:
There is a big gap between good service and an official complaint, and your service doesnt
have to be that bad, by your own standards, to risk client dissatisfaction.
The challenge of keeping the customer satisfied applies to all industries, but evidence suggests
that solicitors have more problems than most. Here are some results from a survey by Which (a
consumer organisation) in England, in 2006:
a third of people think they receive poor service from their solicitor;
a quarter of those surveyed think their solicitor doesnt listen to their opinion;
a third dont feel they are told enough about how much they will be charged; and
more than half the people surveyed said they received no pre-estimate of fees at all; and
Although these figures relate to solicitors in England, are solicitors in Queensland doing any
better? In 2006, QLS and the LSC received a total of 8696 enquiries. Although not all calls and
enquiries will be fair indications of poor service, these figures are at least the equivalent of
enquiries to the Legal Complaints Services in England. In a state of c8,000 practitioners, there
is definitely room for improvement in relation to client care, service and communication,
especially if, as surveys suggests, the vast majority of people prefer not to complain.
There are a number of reasons for client cares relatively low profile amongst solicitors:
Solicitors are instinctively less interested in service issues than harder technical, legal or
intellectual matters;
Service issues rarely seem as urgent as either fee-earning or other practice concerns;
Both practices and individual solicitors assume they are already good at client care; or
Practices do not understand the different elements of client care, and do not know how to
effectively address client care concerns.
These reasons are all barriers to effective client care and service, whether they are true for the
practice as a whole or just for a minority of solicitors. The route to overcoming these barriers is
usually a greater focus on listening to clients. Once solicitors truly listen to their clients, both the
importance of client care, and the required actions become much clearer.
To get your colleagues to accept the need for the practice to focus more on client care, you
might need to first directly challenge complacency. Here are a few questions to consider:
Are you happy with your client retention rates?
Are you confident about introducing clients to all of your colleagues? and that all your
colleagues to you?
Does the culture of the practice help or hinder excellent client service?
How many complaints formal and informal - have you had in the last 3 years? Multiply the
figure by 4: Most people are not comfortable making official complaints to solicitors.
What do your clients really want by way of service? Are you confident your clients answers
would match yours?
The Risk
Management
Process
Risk Identification
Analysis of complaints handling records, client satisfaction research, supervision meetings &
file audits
internal discussions involving fee-earners and support staff.
Risk Assessment
Risk Management
Once you have assessed and prioritised the different risks, you then need to implement arrangements to manage them
Arrangements could include training, guidelines, changing the culture, new IT systems, new
processes, procedures, plans, policies etc.
Monitor Evaluate
Improve
Many of the activities used to avoid negligence claims are equally useful in the context of
client care. Mistakes rarely lead to claims but the common causes of claims (delay, poor
communication, poor administration, poor supervision) can cause just as much harm in terms of
regular client dissatisfaction as a single claim. Poor client service is a risk that can be managed
like any other, and is probably the biggest risk that practices face.
Here are some common risk management techniques and issues which are equally useful in
relation to client care and service.
Initial risk
assessment
Identify the problems that might arise during the matter, and implement arrangements to eliminate
Risk template
Document the common service risks that could potentially occur in each type of matter, and
or manage them.
Oversight of how fee-earners within your team communicate with clients. File audits to check on
Effective first
interviews
Understand and manage the clients expectations. Agree who will do what, and what the fee-earner
client communications.
wont do.
Discuss the clients service requirements.
Informative retainer
letters
Provide the client with all relevant information and make sure they understand it.
Checklists
Encourage the client to come back to you if they have any questions or concerns.
Updates
Manage complaints
Give yourself the chance to address any client dissatisfaction quickly and efficiently in-house before
the client makes a formal complaint, leaves or sues.
Seek Feedback
Always listen and seek feedback both informally, and through formal arrangements like client
satisfaction surveys.
Service is therefore the factor which most influences perceptions of value, and the area where
law firms seeking to improve customer perceptions of value should invest.
According to research by Heather Stewart, a leading consultant on legal client service in
Europe, the key elements in gaining (most) clients trust and creating value are as follows:
Your technical skills, even though these have to be assumed;
Your honesty and integrity, which are also taken as read;
Your communication skills, including your listening skills, how you communicate and how
Communicating value
To reap the benefits that enhanced client service can bring, practices not only have to invest
in the areas mentioned above, they have to ensure that this value is perceived by clients. This is
not meant to suggest that you need to do a hard-sell and simply tell them how wonderful you
are, but simply that solicitors should attempt to bridge the gap between what you think your
services should be worth, and what the client thinks they are worth.
Perceived
value gap
As mentioned above, the majority of clients do not understand either the complexities or
economics of legal work, so it is understandably difficult for them to recognise the value in
your service. Solicitors can address this by improving and increasing client communication.
Clients appreciate and value communication from their solicitors, so the act of communication
helps to build value in itself. It also, however, helps to justify your fees by giving the client more
information about your activity.
Building the clients perception of value can primarily be achieved through the following
communication activities:
First interview;
Client agreement / retainer letter;
Cost & matter updates; and
Final bill
It involves explaining
Not just what work is being done, but why it is being done, and how this benefits the client
Not just who is doing the work, and their experience/expertise, but why it is necessary to
have someone with such expertise handle the matter, and how this will benefit the client.
In a first interview for example, the more you discuss the work you will be doing, the more
the client will understand the work and complexities involved. If, however, you simply extract
information from the client, but give nothing back, it is not surprising if the client undervalues the
work you are doing for them.
Similarly, if you send a cost update, revised estimate or final bill which provides only dollar figures
rather than emphasising the work related to these costs, it is not surprising if the client focuses on
the cost rather than the value. Always try to tell the client what you are doing to justify the fees
you charge.
You would like the builder to build an extension to your house, and you see
this as a fairly simple task which should not cost more than $15,000. The builder
however quotes $25,000 but doesnt indicate that the work is any more
complicated than you had assumed. You reluctantly accept the estimate
and retain the builder but are disappointed when the builder keeps revising
his estimate and at the end of the job (1 month later) the final bill comes in
at $32,500. The additional cost is justified only by harder than I thought and
complications in conversation and by additional time and materials in the bill.
In the above situation, you are unlikely to be a satisfied client, but this is the situation that many
solicitors clients find themselves in. Compare this to the situation below.
You would like the builder to build an extension to your house, and you see
this as a fairly simple task which should not cost more than $15,000. The builder
inspects your property and explains that, whilst normally this would cost c$15,000,
the current drainage arrangements mean that it would be risky to go ahead
without additional work on your guttering, drainage and plumbing. Although
this will increase the cost to $25,000, he explains the risks involved of not doing
the extra work, and you end up being impressed not only by the builders skill in
recognising the initial problem, but in how he has explained the issues to you.
After 5 days, the builder contacts you and says he has some more news. He
apologises for not noticing the issue immediately, but says he has discovered
a serious termite problem in the existing wall, and that this will mean more work
and money. He explains the problem in more detail and increases his estimate to
$32,500 making sure you are happy with this before proceeding with the extra
work. His final bill comes in as estimated, and includes a detailed breakdown of
where his time and your money were spent.
The two examples include the same initial estimates and costs, and both include prompt cost
updates. The difference lies in explaining the work, and specifically in explaining the value
attached to the extra work in this case the value of addressing the drainage and termite risks.
Although much legal work is complicated, solicitors are often too quick to assume that the client
would not understand or would not be interested in more details of the work they are doing
on the clients behalf. By working on their communication skills, complicated legal work can be
explained in a way that not only makes sense to clients, but which helps them to recognise the
value of the work.
Technical competence
By the time they retain you, clients already believe that you are competent in the legal
technical aspects of your work. This applies to all clients. Commercial clients, for example,
usually value the reassurance provided by the range and depth of expertise offered by larger
firms. This technical competence is assumed, however, and is very rarely a major concern of
clients once the working relationship has started.
Sophisticated clients can usually tell quite quickly if a solicitor is out of his/her depth, and this can
quickly lead to a loss of confidence and lack of trust. For this reason, solicitors should never try to
inflate their experience/expertise and should not accept instructions that go outside their areas
of competence. If, however, a solicitor admits quickly that they do not have specific knowledge
in any area, and advises the client that additional or alternative advice has to be sought, client
confidence is often enhanced with the client reassured that the solicitor is looking after the
clients best interests. Solicitors should also try to avoid any actions or situations which might,
rightly or wrongly, cause doubts as to technical skills such as having to amend your advice, or
amend documents which have already been released.
Effective communication
Try to establish how your client would like to communicate at any early stage such as the first
interview:
How: meeting? E-mail? Phone? Letter? Fax?
When: Weekly? Monthly? At specific points in the progression of the case?
Dont over-communicate! Clients appreciate worthwhile communication, but do not like paying
for unnecessary communication, such as lengthy update letters if these are not required. A
balance therefore needs to be found, and agreed with the client.
entrusted to them.
The last point has grown as an issue in recent times as solicitors adapt to the end of professional
deference, rising service expectations, and a growing client assertiveness. Many clients do trust
their lawyers and surrender control willingly, but lawyers have to remember that this trust has to
be earned, and until then, they need to work together with the client. No worries leave it all
to me does not necessarily provide the level of confidence that some fee-earners anticipate.
Solicitors need to approach the client-solicitor relationship as a partnership, and agree in
advance how much control, responsibility and communication the client would like to retain.
To keep the client included and in control, all fee-earners should aim to update the client, at
agreed intervals, on issues including the following:
If there is a delay, and the reason for any delay;
The implications of any developments;
Any changes to the fee-earner or team handling the matter;
Any changes in cost estimates; and
Any changes in timescale estimates.
Involving the client often means going beyond updates and communication. Just as clients
dont like paying for unnecessary communication, they also dont like paying for things they can
just as easily do themselves. If there might be areas where the client could save either money or
time by doing things themselves, this should be discussed at the outset.
Clients increasingly want control over costs. This will often mean going beyond simple costs
information to involving clients in decisions which have cost implications such as which feeearners to use (expensive partner time, or cheaper, less experienced fee-earners), the necessity
of different work, and whether the client can actually do some work themselves instead of
paying the solicitors to do it.
openly
Put the client at ease, so they feel confident in raising issues
Avoid interrupting the client
Ask the appropriate open questions
-- Clients often dont know how their case differs from normal, and arent aware of what the
lawyer needs to know. It is the lawyers responsibility to ensure they get all the information
required, by asking the right questions.
Prepare and follow checklists to ensure you discuss all relevant issues with the client this
will help to ensure you avoid making false assumptions
Help the client clearly articulate issues
Confirm understanding with the client through feedback or summarising.
The last point about confirming understanding is vital because it is not enough to listen to and
understand the client: they have to feel that you are listening to them.
Both written and verbal communications are discussed in more detail in chapter 11.
Pro-active communication from the solicitor
Managing communication and updates in a proactive way is good for both the client and the
solicitor. For clients, proactive communication is a sign of good service, and is likely to increase
the trust and confidence they have in their lawyer. For solicitors, proactive communication is
more efficient than reactive communication and also reduces the communication burden by
limiting any update requests caused by client restlessness or anxiety. Proactive communication
is discussed further in chapter 11
anxiety.
-- if a client tells one person a piece of information, they will resent having to tell two
additional people in the practice the same information
Lack of awareness
-- Not knowing where the partner is
-- Not knowing if something has been actioned
Reliable and efficient service needs reliable and efficient support staff, and their role is
addressed more in a later chapter.
Appreciation
All clients want to feel that they matter to you and your firm, and that you value their business
and their time as much as you do your largest or most prestigious client. Here are some dos and
donts to ensure your clients feel valued.
Do
Dont
What does it mean to be a better lawyer, and how does this improve the service to the client?
For some work, better will mean winning a dispute or achieving a better financial settlement,
apparent in the short term. For much legal work, however, the client is unable to judge quality
in the short term, and will only be able to form an opinion as to quality when a dispute arises or
specific failings are identified.
Superior legal work can therefore be difficult to demonstrate in the short term. One common
failing amongst solicitors is to assume that thoroughness is always the same as quality service
or to define superior legal work in their own terms rather than the clients. Solicitors are natural
perfectionists and will look to cover off every possible risk in their work. Although this is a healthy
trait, it is possible to take this too far as with overzealous due diligence for example. Being
excessively thorough will often lead to increased costs and additional time delays, ultimately
leading to the perception of poorer service.
For superior legal work to lead to perceptions of good client service, therefore, solicitors have to
ensure that where a superior legal is offered, clients are aware of this and how it benefits them.
This involves discussing:
Not just what work is being done, but why it is being done, and how this benefits the client
Not just who is doing the work, and their experience/expertise, but why it is necessary to
have someone with such expertise handle the matter, and how this will benefit the client.
Low Cost
Other things being equal, clients perceptions of service received or at least the value of the
service received - should improve as fees decrease, relative to either client expectations or
competitors fee levels. Pricing is so central to client perceptions, however, that it is rarely that
simple.
If fees are set too low, for example, clients might interpret this to suggest that a discount or
lower quality service is being offered, and expect or become more aware of service failings.
Alternatively, because service expectations have been lowered, it might be easier to meet and
exceed client expectations leading to improved perceptions of client service.
Similarly, higher fees might lead to client reassurance and prompt the client to place more faith
in the solicitor thus facilitating better communications and smoother service, or alternatively
might raise expectations to an unsustainable level, prompting greater dissatisfaction when
standards are not met.
Because of the link between fee levels and client expectations, it is good advice to concentrate
on value rather than absolute fee levels wherever possible. This will mean emphasizing the
quality of the legal work alongside fee levels to reassure clients.
Speed
As with price above, client satisfaction and service perceptions should improve as work is
completed quicker. Also as with price, however, solicitors should be aware of any assumptions
clients might make about the quality of work, and possible speed / quality compromises.
If you are able to complete work quicker than your competitors, it might be worth explaining
to clients how this is possible without any compromise in quality by mentioning experience, IT
investment, knowledge management resources or similar.
Commercial advice
Increasingly, commercial clients do not simply want generic advice on the law, they want
advice that is relevant to their needs and helps them in their business objectives. In order
to provide the sort of practical and creative advice that clients are demanding, solicitors
increasingly have to understand both the issues affecting the clients specific industry, and also
the specific corporate objectives and concerns of their clients.
For this reason, many firms are developing industry groups, as well as practice areas, so solicitors
can share knowledge about different market sectors. Many are also using IT databases or using
internal client teams to discuss specific clients.
By developing this sort of knowledge, solicitors are then able to build their confidence in giving
practical, commercial advice rather than advice that is purely legal.
Flexibility
One of the growing criticisms that clients, particularly commercial clients, have about lawyers is
their inflexibility:
Inflexible in relation to fee arrangements
Inflexible in relation to project management and managing the working relationship
Inflexible in terms of how documents are prepared or what IT is used
Inflexible in their choice of external advisers
Whilst many legal practices claim to be responsive to their clients needs, this is often not
backed up with actions when it comes to, for instance, offering a fixed fee service, offering
secondments, letting in-house people work on-site at the law firm, using different project
management software or providing documents in a different format.
Whilst developing consistency in practice management arrangements within a practice is
important, this has to be weighed up against being flexible in responding to clients needs.
Clients want to be listened to, and that requires being able to adapt to the clients wishes rather
than offering a single way of working and telling the client how things are going to work:
increasingly clients expect to be able to tell solicitors how to do things, and for the solicitors to
adapt as required.
Meeting
key service
expectations
Meeting
basic service
requirements
Technical
skills
Prof
Standards
& Ethics
Confidence
Trust
Value
Whilst creating value in this way is vital, it is only what clients expect. To deliver truly excellent
client service that exceeds client expectations you have to go the extra mile and provide
clients with advice or assistance they were not expecting, and often did not even know they
needed. This might include:
Helping the client develop themselves personally;
Helping client better control their work and life;
Helping the client look good within their organization;
Removing surprises and risks for the client;
Helping the client grow their business and become more profitable; or
Helping the client pay less tax.
These are the service measures that will keep clients coming back, and generate regular
referrals.
To deliver on these measures, it is vital to KNOW YOUR CLIENT! - understand their pressures and
concerns so you can identify opportunities to add value by helping them in innovative ways.
Examples of this include:
Introducing them to other clients or contacts who might be of benefit to them;
Referring business to them.
Raising their awareness o issues relevant to their business;
Providing them with access to useful resources;
Inviting them to free information sessions on relevant issues.
If you can EXCEED client expectations in relation to both their basic requirements and key
service measures AND provide added value by identifying additional innovative ways to help
your clients, you will truly be offering excellent client service.
Meeting
key service
expectations
Meeting
basic service
requirements
Technical
skills
Prof
Standards
& Ethics
Confidence
Trust
Basic
Value
Exceeding
Expectations
Added
Value
Measures
Systems
Supervision &
Performance
Management
Skills
Client Feedback
for Continuous
Improvement
Excellent
client
service
Culture
Systems
Excellent service delivery is dependent not just on actions at the point of delivery, but on
everything your practice does before and after the fee-earner meets the client. This includes
billing and finance, leadership, supervision, people management, IT and facilities.
A weakness in any area of practice management (for example, inaccurate billing or poor IT)
can cause client dissatisfaction and negate any efforts of the fee-earner to provide a good
service.
Practices, therefore, have to focus on all areas of practice management, and develop
effective processes and procedures in all areas. These have to be matched to a clients needs
to ensure that the service is effective and supports all of the efforts of the fee-earner.
This can be seen as a matching process between client needs and organisational inputs to
provide a service. The diagram below, developed by Heather Stewart, a leading authority on
client care in Europe, demonstrates the matching process:
Selected
client
markets
Inputs
Client needs
THE
MATCHING
PROCESS
Leadership
Partners
Culture
People management
Knowledge
Fee earners
Support staff
Management structures
Organisational
structures
Financial management
Systems & procedures
IT
The service
Source: Excellent Client Service (Law Society Publishing 2003) Heather Stewart.
Skills
Effective client service requires the development of a number of personal and team
communication skills including:
Interviewing
Active listening
Clarity of explanation
Time Management
Stress Management
Expectation Management
Written communications
Conflict management / dealing with difficult people
Receiving feedback
Whilst some people will have natural skills in some of these areas, it is rare that training,
practice or focus cannot help to develop them further. Contrary to the belief of many, good
communication skills are not a natural genetic gift most people have to work to develop their
capabilities, but investing in communication skills can bring big rewards in the delivery of client
service.
Culture
How important is client service to your practice?
Providing a service that clients perceive as excellent is the most cost-effective means of
marketing or business development for a firm, and the only certain way to retain client loyalty.
In focusing on marketing and business development, it is often the case that firms
concentrate too much on getting new clients, and not enough on keeping those clients they
already have. Even where the focus is on client retention, it will often be through expensive
corporate hospitality, or a series of events and publications rather than focussing on what
really matters to clients good service.
The claims above are backed up by numerous studies that underline the importance of
client care for solicitors. Here are some statistics that vary only slightly between different
jurisdictions:
85-90% of new work comes from either repeat business, recommendation or referrals
It costs up to 60% more to attract a new client than to sell additional services to an existing
one
Client care and marketing resources
From the figures above, it seems obvious that client care is THE most important driver of
marketing success. The importance of client care is further driven home when you consider the
potential cost of poor client care. Here are some more statistics:
80% of dissatisfied clients will tell someone else about poor service
On average satisfied clients might tell one or two people about good service, whereas a
Given the above, you might expect to see client care as a central plank in any practices
business development strategies, and, if the firm employs any marketing staff, for such people
to be client care and service specialists. On the contrary, it is very rare for a practice to either
employ someone to concentrate on client care, or to give someone specific responsibility for
client care, even in larger firms who have a marketing or business development team of twenty
or more.
Similarly, you might expect practices to ensure that everyone employed by their practice
attends regular training on client care or service, but again practices rarely organise this
internally and any client care CLE/CPD events are often poorly subscribed.
Why is this? A major reason for this lack of focus on client care is usually complacency, or at
least an assumption that a practice, or the individuals within it, are already good at client care.
Another reason might be that solicitors see client care as solely an ethical compliance issue,
and therefore to be managed in the same way as other compliance issues. Whatever the
reason, it is probably fair to say that client care is something that solicitors are reluctant to ask for
help on either from their own marketing teams or from external specialists.
Internal branding
All lawyers have personalities, allegedly a collection of qualities and traits, of character
or behaviour that are peculiar to a specific person. Similarly, legal firms will have their own
collection of qualities and character traits, and a brand is the consolidation of a firms traits,
and the projection of these to the outside world.
When it comes to an important decision like choosing a legal advisor, clients are not interested
in a practices visual identity, which might or might not reflect the reality of the service, but are
influenced in the reality of the corporate personality: the sum of qualities or traits, of character or
behaviour that are peculiar to any specific practice.
To truly re-brand, practices have to do more than change their advertising strap-lines or
redesign their ads and brochures they need to change the way clients perceive them from
direct contact. And as clients are poorly equipped to judge a solicitors legal or technical
expertise, this assessment will largely be based on the service aspects of the client experience.
Many practices have recognised the importance of service issues in the branding of their firm
and have emphasised service and client care in their promotional literature and websites. Whilst
this often accurately identifies and appeals to clients concerns, this can often be a risky exercise
for practices because it immediately raises clients expectations. To claim service excellence,
or to brand yourself as significantly more focussed on client care than other solicitors, you
immediately focus clients attention on all aspects of your service and increase the likelihood
that fault will be found. If you are going to claim service excellence in your external branding,
you need to ensure that your internal brand accurately reflects this.
Another risk in superficially claiming client care and service excellence in your promotional
campaigns is the likelihood that it will invite cynicism and thus be counterproductive. All too
often, legal practices make grand claims such as We have a commitment to exceptional
client service or we maintain the highest standards of client care without being able to
justify those claims or back them up with explanations of how that commitment to client care
is realised, or exactly what your client care standards are. If your practice does make claims
about the excellence of its client care, you should ensure that your staff can back up any claims
with more detail such as management arrangements, targets, protocols and guarantees.
7. Managing expectations
Dissatisfaction with legal services often arises out of the gap between client expectations and
their assessment of the service they have received. For example, if someone expects a matter
to be handled in four weeks, and it takes nine weeks, they are likely to feel disappointed and
dissatisfied. If, however, someone expects the same matter to be handled in 12 weeks, they will
be pleasantly surprised by a response after only nine weeks.
It is therefore vital that a fee-earner:
Gains as full an understanding as possible of the clients requirements and expectations,
time or costs.
One of the major concerns clients have when retaining a lawyer is uncertainty over what is free
and what they might be charged for. To facilitate effective communication, it might help to
give them the following information, in writing, before discussions start:
the name and status of the solicitor or other person conducting the interview confirmation
either:
-- that the interview is free
-- that the cost of the interview is $x
-- that the cost of the interview is at a reduced cost of $x per hour pro rata; or
-- that the first y minutes are free, and thereafter they will be charged pro rata at the rate of $x
per hour; and
In the meeting
Once the discussion starts, the fee-earner should then:
gain as full an understanding as possible of both the facts of the case and the clients
9. Effective Communication
Different ways of communicating
Although technological advances have in recent years made communications easier, the
growth of email, mobile phones, extranets and text messaging could also be said to have
complicated communication. The growing number of communication channels raises questions
of which method to use when, and whether you need to double up by using more than one
method.
Although you might have your own communication preferences, or might believe, for wellfounded reasons that, for example, telephone is usually preferable to email, your views and
preferences in relation to communication should only be a secondary consideration next to the
preferences of clients.
Try to discuss with clients, ideally in or before a first meeting, their communication preferences
and requirements:
How much and what type of updating is required? (cost? matter? Timescales?)
How often are updates required?
Would they prefer updates by email, phone, letter, in person or other method?
Do they want written confirmations of any discussions?
Should communications be copied to any other individuals?
The key is flexibility. Be ready to adapt to your clients demands, and use a variety of
communications methods without solely relying on either letters or the telephone because they
suit your way of working. If you feel it is necessary to confirm advice in a letter, that doesnt
prevent you from raising issues in either a phone call or email. Combining formal and informal
communications also limits the risk that some communications might be missed because a letter
is mislaid or a phone call not returned.
Similarly if the major form of communication is through letter, it is often useful to follow up with a
phone call. This is firstly to check if the letter has been received and read by the client, but also
to ask if the client understands the issues involved, and whether there are any questions: writing
a detailed letter to a client is of little benefit if the client does not understand it.
Also, make sure your clients are aware if there are any cost implications to any of the agreed
communication. Clients want to be kept informed, but often resent having to pay for the time to
produce a detailed letter if a simple phone call would have sufficed.
Stress or anxiety
terms
Excessive detail
Solicitors need to focus on their own communication, consider possible communication barriers
for the client, and work to remove any such barriers often by putting the client at ease or
by asking the right questions. Much will depend on the solicitor making a quick and accurate
assessment of the clients sophistication and ability to understand issues: what is confusing for
one client might be patronizingly simple for another. The key is flexibility. Solicitors need to be
able to adapt to different situations and tailor their language accordingly.
As suggested above, one of the biggest problems with communication is poor listening skills.
Here are a few tips for improving listening skills.
Stop talking
Listen objectively
Try to understand
Help the speaker to explain better so that you might understand better
Taking brief notes shows you are listening and interested, and will help you remember.
Avoid taking excessive notes, as this limits your potential for active listening.
Writing skills
As mentioned above, written communications are of little benefit if the client does not
understand them. Here are some tips for increasing the readability of you client letters:
Avoid big blocks of text use headings, paragraphs, bullet points & tables wherever possible
Highlight any important sections
Emphasise the main points at the start of the letter and/or place secondary detail at the back
or in an appendix
Write in short sentences and avoid long, intricate paragraphs.
To these can be added all of George Orwells 5 rules for effective writing:
Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
Never use a long word where a short one will do
If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
Never use the passive where you can use the active
Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an
Using short sentences and short, commonly understood words can dramatically increase the
readability of any letters. Research suggests that on first reading:
Only 4% of readers understand a sentence of 27 words.
75% of readers understand a sentence of 17 words.
95% of readers understand a sentence of 8 words.
Clearly, your assessment of your own readability will depend largely on your evaluation of
where your clients are likely to be in terms of the above percentages. In writing, you are aiming
to achieve a balance of style. Too many lengthy words and sentences and the letter (or other
document) becomes unwieldy. Too many short ones and you risk sounding either excessively
simplistic or authoritarian.
Proactive updates
Managing communication and updates in a proactive way is good for both the client and the
solicitor. For clients, proactive communication is a sign of good service, and is likely to increase
the trust and confidence they have in their lawyer. For solicitors, proactive communication
is more efficient than reactive communication because it allows the solicitor to deal with
updates at a time that suits them, rather than constantly coping with interruptions. The proactive
approach can also reduce the communication burden by limiting any update requests caused
by client restlessness or anxiety.
Specifically, you should aim to proactively update clients, as early as possible on:
Any changes to the likely overall costs of the matter;
Any changes to likely timescales;
Any delays or problems;
Any significant developments in the matter; and
Any changes in the legal staff managing the case.
Even if the matter hasnt progressed, or if there are no changes to initial estimates, it is good
practice to stay in touch with the client just to reassure them that everything is on track.
Practices should implement arrangements to ensure that updates are provided as agreed with
the client. This might include treating update dates in the same way as the practice might
treat other key dates such as finance dates in conveyancing or limitation dates in personal injury
cases.
Responsiveness
Nothing frustrates a client more than a solicitor failing to respond to their inquiry in a timely
manner. It is one of the major reasons why clients become disenchanted with their solicitor
and either take their business elsewhere or complain to the Legal Services Commission or the
Queensland Law Societys Client Relations Centre.
Here are some suggestions for improving your responsiveness:
Set internal targets for returning phone calls, e-mails, letters and faxes;
Where an immediate response is not possible encourage both fee-earners and support staff
to acknowledge the message and advise the client when they might expect a fuller response;
Either invest in IT or improve internal process/procedures so that updates can be provided
more quickly and more efficiently;
Advise clients in advance if you are going to be unavailable for any significant period of time,
and where possible update them on progress before you leave; and
Make arrangements for the handling of all communications (phone messages, emails etc)
when you are out of the office or on leave.
requirements; and
It protects the fee-earner in respect of any future disputes on the nature of the instruction.
The client agreement should therefore be seen as a positive opportunity to go beyond
regulatory or risk management requirements and ensure that client-solicitor understanding
is as high as it could be, increasing the confidence a client has in your services by providing
additional information.
Standard retainer letters should:
Clearly identify the client and the status of any related entities;
Give the name and status of the person who will be dealing with the matter, together with the
The problem with retainer letters is of course that clients dont read them, and this should be of
concern to a solicitor because it increases the risk that misunderstandings will continue. The first
priority is therefore to make the retainer letter as readable and accessible as possible with plain,
commonly understood English words rather than legalese, and accessible sections, perhaps
with key points highlighted and details in appendices, rather than page after page of heavy
text.
The next step is to follow up on the retainer letter. Ask if the client received it, if they have read
it, and if they have any concerns or questions. This simple call can be highly effective either
prompting the client to read the letter, or prompting them to raise concerns or ask questions
that they might not have done otherwise.
Terms of business
Additional information, including terms of business, should either be included in the client
agreement, attached as an appendix to the client care agreement or, if there are standing
terms of business with regular clients; these should be referred to in the client agreement.
It is often advisable to include such terms of business information in an appendix rather than
the main client agreement, as many clients can find excessively detailed client agreements
frustrating, and prefer key information on the work and the costs of the matter to remain
separate and accessible.
Terms of business could cover the practices arrangements for any or more of the following:
storage of documents;
termination of instructions;
communication by email;
outsourcing of work;
hours of business;
service commitment;
payment of interest;
data protection;
quality standards; and
complaints.
Service commitment
Part of a practices general terms and conditions should advise clients of the specific service
standards that you will endeavour to adhere to during the retainer, for example:
keep the client regularly informed of progress;
communicate in plain language;
explain the legal work that may be required;
advise the client regularly of the costs/risk benefit of pursuing a matter; and
advise the client of the likely timescale involved.
Repeat clients
One of the biggest problem areas with client agreements is with repeat clients. Fee-earners
regularly fail to reach agreements with repeat clients for one of the following reasons:
The client trusts us, knows our terms and rates, and doesnt need an agreement
It was more important to get on with the case, than attend to paperwork
Even when the above reasons are valid, the danger of not formalising an agreement is the
client doesnt have a chance to query or clarify any part of the understanding, and the feeearner is not protected in the case of any future disputes on the nature of the instruction. It will
not always be safe to assume that the instruction is exactly the same and the same terms and
conditions apply.
For this reason, the fee-earner should always try to formalise an agreement. Even where the
practice has standing terms and conditions with regular clients, the nature of the instruction
should always be confirmed.
Dear Members,
It is with great pleasure that I advise that the Society has released its Costs Guide which
deals with the new costs regime under the Legal Profession Act 2007. Please note, if you are still
entering into Client Agreements under the repealed provisions of the Queensland Law Society
Act 1952, a draft Client Agreement is available on the QLS website.
The Costs Guide highlights the significant issues that must be considered by each law practice
in meeting its obligations under the new costs regime under the Legal Profession Act 2007 and
contains draft covering letters, disclosure notice, costs agreement and bills notice.
The Society has been aware of the need for a practical guide for use by members in putting
into practice the requirements of the new costs regime which became mandatory on January
1, 2008. To this end, the Litigation Rules Section developed this guide and I would like to take this
opportunity to thank, in particular, Tony Deane (Clayton Utz), Paul Garrett (Hickey & Garrett)
and vice president Peter Eardley (Eardley Motteram) for their enormous efforts in producing this
guide.
As you will appreciate, the Costs Guide is exactly that a guide. Members need to familiarise
themselves with the new legislative regime under the Legal Profession Act 2007 and must
exercise independent legal judgment and skills in the preparation and administration of
disclosure notices and costs agreements addressing client needs, relevant matters and
individual circumstances.
In relation to how the Legal Profession Act 2007 affects existing retainers and client agreements
under the Queensland Law Society Act 1952, and the transitional provisions relating to those
matters, I would encourage members to read CEO Peter Carnes page in the August issue of
Proctor.
Should any member require any further guidance, please do not hesitate to contact our Client
Relations Centre on 3842 5843.
Yours Sincerely,
Megan Mahon
President
Client requirements
Whilst compliance with the regulatory regime for costs is of course important, it has to be
stressed that regulatory compliance is only the start of good practice in relation to costs.
Regulatory standards should be seen as only a minimum benchmark which practices should
then develop according to their clients requirements. There is a big gap between mere
regulatory compliance and client satisfaction, and approaching costs from merely a
compliance point of view is unlikely to guarantee client satisfaction in relation to costs.
Both individuals and commercial clients are highly sensitive to how costs are handled, are
concerned by the unpredictability of it, and are highly aware, under billable hour systems, that
the meters running all the time. The management of costs information is one of the few areas
where clients can genuinely assess your performance, so costs are often the key deciding factor
influencing client satisfaction.
As with other elements of client care and service, the strategy for meeting client needs in
relation to costs has three elements:
Effective use of client
feedback
Identify both general trends and specifics in client concerns and preferences re the management
Consistency
Implement systems, policies, processes, protocols to address the issues identified through
of costs.
feedback
Arrange training, guidance and supervision in relation to any agreed systems etc.
Retain enough flexibility for fee-earners to react to different client needs
Practice culture
Ensure adequate support to facilitate accurate estimating, updating and the capturing of feedback
Strategic focus on client satisfaction in relation to costs.
Recognition and reward of cost management effectiveness.
The most common causes of client dissatisfaction about costs are as follows:
Inaccurate initial estimates;
Failing to explain the difference between a quote and an estimate or to draw attention to the
All of these causes of dissatisfaction can be addressed simply by training, guidance, checklists
or other measures. Failing to address these issues can not only cause client dissatisfaction in
terms of service, they can also lead to accusations of overcharging or unethical practice.
Although such accusations will often be unfounded, the solicitor should aim to ensure that such
issues do not arise in the first place.
In summary:
is key to
which is
which are
key to
Good costs
information
Clients
perceptions of
service
key to
Clients
perceptions of
value
Recovery of
recorded time, and
Clients willingness
to pay bills.
Clients want to feel that the fee they pay is reasonable for the value they have gained from
your service. Mismanagement of costs information and billing is one of the simplest ways to
destroy client confidence, and to make clients question the value of your service. If you do not
meet their service expectations, there will be a gap between what your recorded time suggests
and what your client perceives as reasonable value.
Estimates
Lets start with a couple of myths/misconceptions about the provision of accurate estimates to
clients:
Myth 1: The accuracy of the estimate does not have a strong influence on the
profitability of the work - because whatever the estimate, the bill and fees
recovered will depend on the actual hours recorded, not the estimate.
It is wrong to assume that the accuracy of the estimate has little bearing on the profitability of
the work. With firms on average recovering only c80% of recorded time, the link between time
recording and fees is not as strong as is sometimes assumed, especially where the submitted bill
exceeds the estimate. Research from both law firms and their clients has shown that accurate
estimates can affect profitability in a number of ways:
Surveys demonstrate that the closer the final bill is to the estimate, the higher the recovery
rate - the percentage of recorded time (or work in progress (WIP)) that is finally paid by the
client to the firm. If a bill comes in exactly as estimated, clients pay it because there are no cost
concerns and nothing to debate or complain about. For the same reason, there is no partner
editing of the bill before it is sent.
If, however, the bill comes in above the estimate, this is when partners either write off some WIP,
or the client is disappointed and becomes more inclined to scrutinize or dispute the final bill,
leading to write-offs or discounts. There seems to be an understanding, observed (to varying
degrees in different markets) by both firms and their clients, that any fees above an estimate are
negotiable. It therefore follows that if work is done without any estimate of overall costs, then an
even bigger proportion of the final bill is negotiable, or at risk of being written off.
Estimate
WIP
Notes
Recovered fees
$8,500
$10,000
$9,000
$1,500
$10,000
$2,500
$10,000
In a similar way, if the final bill comes in close to the estimate, fee-earners will be quicker to
bill and clients will be quicker to settle - for the same nothing to discuss, nothing to dispute
reasons. If the estimation and billing system can be managed to ensure that bills are consistently
settled quickly in this way, this can dramatically improve the cash-flow of the firm, releasing cash
for investment, reduction of bank overdraft or partner drawings.
Myth 2: Accurate estimates are not possible: the work is potentially complicated
and there are too many variables that could affect the final size of the bill.
In relation to the second myth, some lawyers might be surprised at the number of instructions
it is reasonably practicable to make accurate estimates for, once they realize the extent
to which such accuracy can affect client satisfaction, the payment of bills and profitability.
Although some legal work is genuinely unique and groundbreaking, the vast majority (either
in its entirety or once broken down into its constituent parts) has been done before by any
particular firm. This means that the firm should be able to draw on historical accounts data to
identify what past jobs, or their constituent parts, have previously cost.
Using historical data to provide accurate estimates is an obvious but often under-used
approach within law firms: it requires a combination of legal knowledge and accounts analysis
skills that neither lawyers nor accounts staffs have fully acquired. Two solutions to this might be to
either train the fee-earners up on estimation skills to a greater extent, or to change the accounts
focus (or move staff) from billing to estimating.
The breaking up of legal work into constituent parts is also vital for accurate estimating. This
not only helps a law firm come up with accurate figures, and provides a client with more
information; it can also increase the perceived fairness and accuracy of a bill even where the
overall costs can not be accurately predicted. For example, a law firm might not be able to
reasonably predict how many documents of a certain type it will be required to review as part
of a case, but can predict what each review will cost, for instance, either there hours or c$750.
If a firm can quote, stick to, and refer to these estimates, then the final bill will still be consistent
with the estimate, irrespective of the number of documents reviewed. This then gives the client
little room to dispute the bill, so the likely recovery rate and speed of payment will remain good.
Updates
Client satisfaction with bills, and hence the likely recovery percentage and speed of payment,
can also be affected by the speed and manner of updates on costs, or deviations from initial
estimates. The key is to give the client as much information as possible, as early as possible. This
makes the client feel in control and reduces the potential for dissatisfaction or disputes.
Ensuring updates are accurate and delivered quickly, however, is not always easy, especially
when your main concern is fee-earning. How much updating is required? And how do you know
if costs are rising too rapidly? Here are some suggestions for best practice:
Provide staff training on estimation skills;
Monitor the accuracy of all estimates & encourage team members to improve their estimation
accuracy performance;
In a first interview, raise the issue of updates with the client, and ask them how regularly,
or in what circumstances, they would require cost or matter updates. Make sure the client
understands the cost implications of updates if there are any.
If the client has asked to be updated on a regular basis, treat cost update dates as key
dates the same way you would court dates or statute of limitation dates, by entering them on
file and in diaries and reminder systems.
Always update the client before, rather than after, costs exceed any initial estimate.
If you have a sophisticated accounts or time recording system, program it to alert you when
the accumulated work-in-progress exceeds c70% of the estimate. This will prompt you to
consider the likelihood that you will ultimately exceed the total estimate, and therefore the
need to inform the client.
Always provide an explanation for any increase in costs, and wherever possible discuss
this with the client. This helps to focus attention on the progress of the case, or the value
provided, and not on the costs.
Arrange to compare the accumulated costs to estimates, on all your open files, on a regular
basis.
Do a staged matter plan for each instruction, estimating the costs that should have accrued
at the end of each stage. Consult this regularly and update the client as required.
Billing
When it comes to costs communication, clients want a number of things: accurate estimates,
to be in control, and both proactive and reactive communication from their solicitors. When it
comes to billing they also want reliability (bill when you say you are going to bill, and quickly),
fairness (no outrageous charges for photocopying), transparency, and just enough detail to let
them fairly asses the bill.
The narrative should be sufficiently lengthy to communicate the value of the work, but not so
overlong as to be impenetrable. Above all, the bill should include a breakdown of the way it
has been calculated: $10,000 for legal services in relation to the sale of XYZ is rarely enough.
Although many firms or fee-earners prefer to wait until a client asks for a breakdown, this is
too late for many clients: they resent having to ask for further information and the damage is
already done: the failure to issue a detailed bill not only causes a client to focus on the cost
rather than the work and its value, it can also immediately cause doubt or suspicion about the
firms ability to justify their charges.
To remove any doubt, and in addition to an initial summary of work and costs, it is good
practice to offer clients a full breakdown of all recorded time entries on their matter. Many
clients will not require this, but that does not mean they dont appreciate the offer. To prepare
for this, all time has to be recorded as if the client was the next person to see it. If descriptions
are too vague, the client might either doubt the legitimacy of the entry, or feel they have room
for negotiating a discount based on the vagueness of any description.
<< Back to contents
Finally, never send a bill unless the client knows what is in it. Discuss it with them first. If you send
clients a bill for an unexpected high amount, not only are you unlikely to get paid in full, you will
also undo any good work you have previously put into building the relationship. Surveys show
that corporate clients prefer to discuss bills with their lawyers before receiving them, and it has
benefits for solicitors too: it is an opportunity to remind clients of the work involved and its value,
and removes any potential shock, so that when the bill arrives, the client is expecting it, and is
more likely to pay it quickly.
Conclusion
Lawyers are often uncomfortable with discussions on pricing and billing, and this can lead to
failures in communication and client dissatisfaction. Many solicitors think they handle costs
reasonably well, but costs remain one of the key areas of dissatisfaction for the clients of
solicitors. Clients are usually highly aware that the meters running all the time, but will resent
having to raise the subject of costs themselves. Practices should aim to build their confidence
in discussing costs and, where possible, should go beyond the regulatory requirements and aim
to ensure that costs disclosure becomes an area of strength, and a driver of profitability, rather
than a potential weakness.
Below is a table summarising the key issues that solicitors should consider in relation to costs
information and billing:
Communication
Understanding your clients needs and preferences applies equally to the pricing of
services. Wherever possible, try to discuss their preferences on the structuring of fees, so
you are then able to come up with an offer or solution that is attractive to them.
Flexibility
Reliability
Agree when you are going to bill your client and stick to that agreement.
Extras
Clients hate to see unexpected extras or overheads on a bill. State clearly at the outset
what expenses and disbursements will be included in the final bill and try to limit these
as much as possible. If you are going to charge the client for travel, photocopying and
refreshments/subsistence, these amounts should be reasonable and made clear at the
outset.
The Legal Services Commissioner has published his guidelines for charging outlays and
disbursements. This should be read by all partners/principals, and is available at http://
www.lsc.qld.gov.au
Certainty
One of the main concerns that clients have in working with lawyers is uncertainty over
costs, so fee arrangements that limit or eliminate this uncertainty are often very popular.
This will usually mean moving away from the traditional hourly fee in some way, towards
fixed fees or fee caps.
This can be problematic for a law firm because the hourly fee provides a greater
guarantee that firms will be paid for the work done. If they move away from this, they
might not be able to bill for all their hours. The solution to this is to introduce effective
analysis of all completed work so that a firm can then predict with greater confidence
the likely costs of future similar work, and so offer an alternative to the rigid hourly fee.
Transparency
Another major concern of clients is to know exactly what they are getting for their
money. For this reason, it will often help not only to explain in detail the work you will
undertake, but also to offer a full printout of work done and hours spent on the matter by
all fee-earners involved. Some firms even offer the chance for clients to inspect their time
recording or billing systems.
Risk-sharing
Recent years have seen the rapid growth of no-win no-fee offers from legal firms,
primarily in the sphere of claimant personal injury. Many other clients, however, including
commercial clients, would appreciate their legal advisers offering to risk a proportion
of their standard fee/price in the form of a success bonus. This sort of approach is often
highly appreciated by clients.
Once fees have been quoted, it is vital to keep the client informed about the progress
of costs against the estimates, and to issue interim bills and interim estimates whenever
possible, including an explanation of the additional costs. It is much better to do this than
to wait until the end of the matter and shock the client with a bill exceeding the initial
estimate.
Volume or loyalty
rewards
The past 10 years have seen retailers offering loyalty schemes to frequent shoppers and
the same principle can be applied to law firms. Clients who give significant amounts
of work to a law firm might be disappointed if their loyalty is not rewarded. Many firms
already offer discounts to key clients or to gain particular instructions. Firms could,
however, be more creative in the way they offer these across the board as a way to
increase long-term client retention.
The final bill to the client can depend to a great extent on whether the majority of
the work is done by (expensive) partners or (cheaper) fee earners. For this reason,
sophisticated clients are increasingly asking their legal advisers to increase the leverage
on their work to ensure fees are controlled.
Firms should discuss with clients the anticipated ratio of work to be done by partners,
compared to other fee earners. Some clients will prefer a greater degree of partner
involvement, whilst others would prefer less partner involvement to keep costs low.
The above considerations apply equally to the level of blended rates, so that when
blended rates are quoted, they should be accompanied with details on the gearing
assumed for the rates.
Advise whether the matter, or any parts of it, should be reviewed at any time in the future;
and
Forward a bill for any outstanding costs to the client.
Check, check and seek feedback
When you are closing the matter, it is good risk management practice to do a closing risk
assessment a check to see if everything has been done competently, and if there are any
outstanding issues that could lead to a claim or a complaint. This should be extended further
with fee-earners asking themselves whether there are any grounds for client dissatisfaction, and
whether anything can be done to avoid or minimise any perception of poor service.
Once the fee-earner has satisfied themselves that they have done all they can in relation to
client care and service, it is vital when closing a matter to again check the clients expectations
and ask whether they have any outstanding needs, requests or concerns. Again, without this
final check, it is possible that the clients formerly positive perception of the service received
from your practice can be negated by the failure to provide one last piece of advice or action
some minor piece of administration.
Finally, after you have checked that there is nothing further you can do for the client, you should
then seek feedback on your service a topic which is discussed in more detail later in this guide.
Unsupportive culture
focus on service
Individual workloads are managed and reasonable
Minimal support
Understanding, supportive
Critical, competitive
Changing culture is never easy, but having a plan or a framework to focus on cultural concerns
will help.
What culture does your
Identify:
What cultural attributes, values & objectives does your firm want?
Actions here will depend on your cultural analysis and objectives but some of the following
culture
might help you to develop the right culture to facilitate service excellence:
Leadership by example;
Team building initiatives;
Change reward, remuneration, promotion arrangements to recognise the importance of service &
communication
Agree individual development appraisals and plans;
Improve internal communication;
Offer more support for training (both team and individual);
Invest in facilities/IT/support staff;
Re-evaluate billable hour targets or working hour expectations;
Move away from reliance on the hourly fee as a basis for both charging and performance
assessment.
Improve work/life balance;
Increase diversity of staff (age / sex / ethnic origin etc.)
Change organisational structure;
Move to more modern office facilities;
Include service and client care as part of performance assessment;
Re-evaluate delegation and supervision arrangements;
Increase respect and dignity at work / reducing bullying.
Client feedback and complaints information, as well as your own observations, should
improve
provide information to identify strengths and weaknesses and to continuously improve your
firms culture.
This culture, however, not only lowers the motivation for solicitors to invest time in nonchargeable client care, it is also inherently inefficient in that it limits the motivation for feeearners, or the firm, to raise productivity and introduce time-saving working practices (if time is
saved, less hours can be billed).
Productivity can, however, be increased through other initiatives such as use of IT, knowledge
management and effective supervision. Moving away from the culture of the billable hour
and taking a broader view of productivity can therefore not only help to raise efficiency (and
therefore profitability), it can also change the firms culture to facilitate an increased focus on
service and client care.
Motivation
Efforts to change the culture and improve standards of service, communication and client
care within your practice are unlikely to be effective unless the people within your practice are
motivated to change.
Many of the cultural changes discussed in this chapter will be popular on their own merits
especially to the younger generation (Gen Y) of solicitors but for many fee-earners, motivations
will still revolve around individual goals and ambitions: namely pay, promotion or other rewards.
Legal practices traditionally reward, promote and remunerate according to a single, narrow
measure the solicitors short-term fee-earning record or potential. In practices where this is the
case, it will probably be unrealistic to expect people to focus on service and communication if
this will not be recognised or rewarded by the practice. Even where service can be improved
without the need to compromise on fee-earning time, solicitors will often lack the motivation to
focus on these areas.
If a practice is serious about raising its service standards, it should therefore consider changing its
reward and recognition policies. Things to consider include:
Increasing the focus on client service during supervision meetings;
Increasing the focus on client service during annual appraisal meetings including making
Peoples perceptions of the service they receive from their law firm will often start forming even
before they meet a fee-earner. Poor service or communication by support staff at the enquiry
stage can either lose the practice work, or lead to negative perceptions about client care at
the practice.
Handling enquiries
It is very easy to make a bad first impression. Practices should therefore consider training their
support staff on some of the common issues related to the handling of enquiries, and constantly
monitor performance. Here are some dos and donts as pointers
Do
Dont
disinterested
Be unhelpful or negative
I dont know
To call back?
No
as the firm would manage key dates (such as statute of limitations etc);
Regularly compiling cost updates for matters and preparing these for the fee-earners to
consider; and
Undertaking any other administration which makes it easier for the fee-earner to update
clients.
In their own contact with clients, support staff can play an important role in making clients
feel appreciated. Little things like calling clients by their name and remembering refreshment
preferences can make a big difference in clients perception of service.
ensure that anyone a client speaks to can provide a copy of the additional information about
complaints.
Identify one person with ultimate responsibility for handling complaints. Ideally, this should be
a senior person who has the authority to settle complaints as required;
Identify the root cause of any complaint and design processes/procedures to ensure that the
same problem/oversight does not arise again; and
Review all complaints information at least once a year, and introduce new client care or risk
management arrangements as required to address areas of weakness.
A sample complaint handling procedure is attached in appendix 1. You may choose to inform
the client about the whole complaints procedure at once at the start of the matter. However,
this is not essential, and might lead to negative perceptions about the likelihood of a complaint.
Only in the event of a problem arising need the procedure be provided or explained.
One of the key issues to address when designing a complaints-handling procedure is to define
what a complaint is. A broad definition (for example, any description of client dissatisfaction,
however expressed) will gather a lot of information, but will the practice be able to effectively
handle so many complaints? Alternatively, a narrow definition of complaint might mean that
much client dissatisfaction goes un-recorded and un-addressed.
or
Any expression of client dissatisfaction that, if unresolved, could lead to either negative
Looking at the inverted pyramid above, it can be seen that the client dissatisfaction gets more
serious as you go down the pyramid and client dissatisfaction increases. For this reason, the
most effective complaints handling procedures recognise and define complaint broadly so
that the firm has a chance to formally resolve the complaint early and thus eliminate the risk of
either a more formal complaint or any other effect of client dissatisfaction. A broader definition
of complaint will also provide you with more information to identify areas for improvement. If
client dissatisfaction is identified early and addressed to the clients satisfaction, this can actually
improve the firms standing in the eyes of the client, and be seen as an example of good service.
With complaints handling, it is important to get the attitude right as well as implementing
effective procedures. Here are some dos and donts to remember. Dont
Dont
Do
the complaint, and tell them what steps you will take (or
have taken) to assess the complaint
If the complaint is justified, be ready to make a serious
offer.
Be consistent in your handling of complaints
Think about the costs to your practice, in terms of feeearner time and lost good-will, of continuing to fight a
complaint.
Make all staff aware of things that have gone wrong and
how they should avoid similar problems in the future.
Say sorry. Sometimes this is all the client wants to hear. It
should be easier to say sorry than to carry on fighting or to
offer a reduction in the bill.
Learn from the complaint
In handling complaints, people rarely intend to be rude or unhelpful, but it is often difficult to
control natural human instincts when confronted with criticism, or what is perceived as criticism.
Law firms should therefore consider assisting fee-earners in their complaints handling through
training, and/or the development of a no-blame culture within a firm. This should help to
control the impact of any defensive or adversarial instincts.
Here are some quotes adapted from real(!) legal practice complaints handling procedures that
act as a humorous warning on the type of attitude that should be avoided.
We rarely get things wrong so please check your facts before raising any
complaint with us.
Please remember we are busy people. When your complaint arrives it will be
amongst many other important matters that we have to deal with, but we assure
you we will get back to you as soon as we can, which hopefully will be the end
of the matter.
Please remember that our time costs money and the time taken to deal with
your complaint will mean we are unable to deal with proper clients. However,
we understand and take your complaints seriously and for this reason you will
be charged a flat rate of $250 in recognition of the time we have spent in
evaluating your claim. This is regardless of how long we actually spend and is
quite good value for money given that our cheapest fee earner charges $250
per hour.
A sample complaints handling procedure
To be adapted to suit your own practice culture and arrangements.
We will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and asking you to confirm or
explain any details. If it seems appropriate we will suggest a meeting at this stage. We will
also confirm the name and status of the person who will be dealing with your complaint.
2.
We will then open a file for your complaint, record your complaint in our central register
and investigate your complaint be examining the relevant file(s).
3.
If appropriate, and usually within [14 ?] days, we will then invite you to discuss your
complaint. If you would prefer not to meet, or a meeting is inconvenient, we will write
confirming our approach to the complaint, and any redress we feel to be appropriate.
4.
Within 2 days of any meeting, we will write to confirm any agreements and, where
appropriate, offer an apology, reduction in bill or a repayment.
5.
At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, please let us know. We will then arrange to
review our decision within [10?] days. The review might involve:
a)
A review by someone in the firm who has not been involved in the complaint;
b)
c)
A suggestion the matter be referred to Queensland Law Society Client
Relations Centre
for advice, mediation or resolution.
6.
We will let you know the results of the review within [5?] days of its completion. At this
time we will write to you confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our
reasons.
We will also give you contact details of Queensland Law Society and the Legal
Services Commission. If you are still not satisfied, you can contact them about
your complaint. We very much hope this will not be necessary.
The results to this single question will not only provide a vital measure of the practices success
in improving client care, it will also identify the most important issues to address. Firms should
monitor on an ongoing basis the percentage of clients that would be happy to refer them to
someone else, not just for the practice as a whole, but for different teams, practice areas and
individuals. Weakness can then be identified and the practice can together work to improve
their scores.
What is an acceptable score? If 70% of your clients would be happy to refer you to someone
else, that means that 30% had significant enough concerns about your service not to refer you.
If, as a practice you are serious about client service, you should be aiming for no less than 95%
success rate. This is not to say that you expect to reach 95% immediately, but that to aim for
anything less is to accept poor service as a common feature of your practice.
Possible responses
Research shows that clients rarely infer or assume poor service from a
request for feedback. On the contrary, most believe that the seeking of
client feedback is an example of commitment to client care and a sign of
good service.
If you are in doubt as to your clients response, explain your reasons for the
survey perhaps as a means of improving what is probably already good.
how the majority of feedback is positive, and can therefore help morale.
What is worse: a bit of criticism, or losing a client because you didnt
address dissatisfaction?
Explain to colleagues that negative feedback will not be used to blame or
criticise individuals, but rather to identify any systematic failings that can be
addressed through new arrangements or activities.
Possible responses
It is unprofessional.
Clients are used to different companies seeking feedback and may even
do it in their own jobs or activities. Most clients welcome any efforts a firm
makes to improve its service.
It is only unprofessional in a good sense: moving away from the
perceptions that some people have of professionals being aloof , arrogant
or unresponsive to client needs.
Im too busy
________________________________________________________________________________________
(Signature of partners)
Q1
________________________________________________________________________________________
Below
Do you have any suggestions for ways in which your solicitor could improve his/her
services to you?
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
average
Below
Good
Factor
Average
How would you rate your solicitors secretary and articled clerks on the following factors?
Very good
Q4
average
Q3
Good
Very
Factor
Average
good
Q2
Q5:
How could your solicitors secretary or clerks improve their service to you
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
Q6.
How would you rate the service provided by reception and administration staff?
Below average
Average
Good
Very good
Factor
Q7
Yes /
No (please circle)
Comments
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
Q8
Yes /
No (please circle)
Comments
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
Q9
Please provide any other comments you would like to make on the service you
received
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
3) Define Responsibility
Unless responsibility is defined, it is very easy for client service initiatives to lose momentum. For
this reason, it is often vital to identify one person (or in larger firms maybe a committee) to drive
the process forward either for the practice as a whole or in each team. Responsibilities of this
person could include:
Communicating objectives
Devising and implementing strategies
Implementing the required changes to management systems and administrative processes
Managing the process of seeking and interpreting client satisfaction feedback.
Ideally, such a person should be a senior or authoritative person with the practice who can lead
by example. If the task is delegated to a junior person, this risks indicating that the initiative is a
low priority for the partners or management.
The more information you can gain from your clients, the better, and whilst the last chapter
discussed the different options for gaining client feedback, the key to success is in how this
information is used. Accepting some of the criticisms that are levelled at the firm or at individuals
will not be easy, but acceptance is key to moving forward. Too many law practices go through
the motions of undertaking client research but then fall into one of the following traps:
Ignoring the negatives and focusing only on the positives either for staff feedback or for
marketing purposes;
Questioning or rejecting any negative comments in the belief that the client doesnt
understand; or
Either failing to analyse the responses, or failing to act on the analysis.
Failing to respond to client feedback is not only a waste of resources, it can also send out the
wrong signals to clients if concerns arent addressed: nobody likes having to make the same
negative comments twice.
Posters, screensavers;
Service initiative of the month awards; and
A service orientated employees of the month award.
Traditionally, practices have focussed on technical legal skills and specific legal experience as
the sole basis for recruitment, pay and promotion. If practices are serious about client service,
surely this should be a consideration as well. Often there is an assumption that legal skills are
the most important attribute and that other qualities such as communication and service skills
are either secondary or can be learnt on the job. This, however, seems to ignore the fact that,
according to research, most client value is built from those skills that clients can judge namely
the service/communication skills.
Practices should also review their time recording targets or policies. Time recording policies
whose main objective is to ensure that billable hours reach a set target each day/week/month
risk acting against client service in two ways:
By adding an incentive for the fee-earner to constantly favour fee-earning work at the
In addition to the many alternatives to the billable hour system, practice can also build in
specific incentives for client service: instead of a target of 6 billable hours a day, why not set
targets of 5 billable hours plus one hour of non-billable client service/development activity.
dissatisfaction?
For many practices, improving service delivery will involve significant investment in new IT
applications, but whilst IT can be highly effective in improving responsiveness, managing
risk or reducing delay, practices should also look for quick, cheap wins. Little things such
as remembering personal details or being proactive with updates can often make a big
difference.
Wherever practical, practices should aim to review all administrative arrangements, not just
those which are most obviously concerned with client care: IT, finance, marketing, knowledge
management, time recording, supervision arrangements, staff training and more call impact on
the fee-earners ability to provide a good service, and thus on client satisfaction.
Finally, try to include as many staff in this process as possible. People have a natural aversion to
bureaucracy being imposed from above, so try to use their ideas wherever possible.
Because for many types of work it will be impractical for a partner to personally review and
discuss all files, practices are increasingly implementing a system of file reviews or audits. This
is where fee-earners will audit a random sample of another fee-earners file against a preprepared checklist. In addition to any risk-management related checks, file audits should also
check things such as:
Client communication preferences recorded?
Client care letter sent?
Client care letter consistent with practice policy/guidance?
All client communications recorded and responded to within target timeframes?
Follow-up telephone call?
Cost updates sent?
Matter update sent?
Beyond file audits, practices should also ensure that client service is discussed in performance
appraisals and as frequently as possible in supervision meetings. If supervision meetings continue
to discuss only legal matters and the number of hours recorded, fee-earners cannot be
criticised for assuming that these are the only things that matter. Key to the supervision role will
be identifying development issues in relation to service, and also identifying training needs as
appropriate.
The next step is to bring the client more directly into the process by directly discussing specific
client feedback with the fee-earner involved. This will be an uncomfortable step for many
practices, but can bring dramatic improvements in performance.
possible;
Pick the right person as the main complaints-handling contact: objective and supportive
rather than defensive, authoritative enough to make important decisions, and senior enough
to ensure that appropriate changes are implemented;
Train all your staff on the complaints handling process so they can advise clients as required;
Remember that retaining the client might be more important than being right: be ready to say
sorry and make amends; and
Learn from your mistakes, but avoid a blame culture and look for a systematic solution to
ensure that the same mistakes dont happen again.
11) Fight complacency and constantly review performance
Complacency is one of the biggest risks that practices face when tackling client service issues.
Delivering excellent client service the kind of client service that brings referrals, boosts recovery
rates and justifies rate increases requires much more than simply meeting your professional
obligations and avoiding complaints.
Guard against complacency by constantly seeking and responding to client feedback.
Measure your progress against a number of indicators, and implement the arrangements to
ensure that you respond.
Act people suspected of being unlawful operators, for example (that is to say, people
who represent or hold themselves out to be lawyers when in fact they are not) and people
suspected of unduly influencing or attempting to unduly influence a legal practitioner
director or other lawyer employed by an incorporated legal practice to act contrary to their
professional obligations as lawyers.
We are also able to investigate the conduct not only of people who work for an incorporated
legal practice but in certain circumstances the corporation itself if we suspect it has employed
or entered into a partnership with or shared receipts with a disqualified person, for example;
and
Our approach
We have a big job to do and an important one. We try to go about our work in ways as best
calculated as we can to achieve the main purposes of the Act in this context, to promote
and enforce the professional standards, competence and honesty of the profession and to
provide a means of redress for complaints about lawyers. The act envisages and no doubt
consumers expect us to go about our work independently and without self-interest and, in
dealing with any particular matters that come our way, as efficiently, fairly and quickly as
possible, and we set ourselves these goals also.
We think we will best achieve these goals if we set out deliberately as part of what we do to try
to reduce the incidence of the sorts of conduct that give cause for complaint before the event,
as it were before things go sour and give rise to complaint. We also therefore set ourselves the
goals of:
Putting our investigation matter power to good use wherever possible and appropriate by
looking out for and identifying conduct and patterns of conduct that appear to put consumers,
especially vulnerable consumers at risk or that appears to be widespread and initiating
investigations into that conduct: and
Learning whatever we can from our experience dealing with complaints and investigation
matters and to making good use of that information and perspective by undertaking
and partnering the professional bodies, the law schools and other legal stakeholders in
undertaking research and educational and law reform projects and activities that make a
practical contribution to improving standards of conduct in the profession.
Even more fundamentally, we think we should be looking for every opportunity, when we are
dealing with a complaint or investigation matter and believe there is something to it, to remedy
whatever it is that went wrong and to prevent it from happening again.
Some complaints and investigation matters involve dishonesty and other willful or reckless
misconduct of a serious kind and clearly conduct at this end of the spectrum warrants a
disciplinary response to protect the reputation of the profession or to send a message to other
practitioners by way of deterrence or both.
Most complaints however describe conduct of more prosaic kinds they describe minor
incompetence and mistakes and errors of judgment and delays and discourtesy and other
poor standards of service that give consumers less than a good or fair deal and so entitle
them to a legitimate sense of grievance. Intuitively it seems harsh and clumsily inefficient to
put practitioners who may be guilty of minor misconduct of these kinds through the same
disciplinary process as practitioners who may be guilty of more serious transgressions.
Intuitively at least it seems more appropriate simply to require them to apologise to the
complainant or to re-do the work they were engaged to do in the first place or to waive some
or all of their fee or otherwise to remedy the faults in the service they provided and to learn
from their mistake by fixing their office systems or undertaking some further training and the like
wherever tailor-made remedy and / or preventative measures that best fit the particular facts.
Its a form of restorative justice.
We use the leverage the statutory framework gives us to that end. Notably the Act gives us
only two ways to deal with complaints over which we have jurisdiction as consumer disputes,
or as complaints (lets call them conduct complaints) that involve an issue of unsatisfactory
professional conduct or, at the more serious end of the spectrum, professional misconduct.
The Act doesnt define unsatisfactory professional conduct in any exhaustive way but
(consistent with the uniform definition of the term nationally) says only that it includes conduct
of an Australian legal practitioner happening in connection with the practice of law that falls
short of the standard of competence and diligence that a member of the public is entitled to
expect of a reasonably competent Australian legal practitioner.
The obvious question is just how unsatisfactory a practitioners conduct has to be to count as
unsatisfactory professional conduct. Arguably it is open to us to interpret and apply the concept
narrowly so that it excludes the sorts of minor misconduct we have in mind and so allows us
to deal with complaints about conduct of this king not as conduct complaints but consumer
disputes. That would distinguish them from complaints that describe more serious misconduct of
kinds which unambiguously warrant a disciplinary response if proved.
That approach has appeal, and its the approach our counterpart regulators take in other
jurisdictions including New South Wales, but it would come at a price in our jurisdiction it would
deal us out of the game by robbing us of any powers we might otherwise have to achieve our
most fundamental purposes, to promote and enforce professional standards and to provide a
means of redress for complaints.
Thats because our Act obliges us to investigate conduct complaints and gives us significant
powers of investigation but gives us no such obligations or powers in relation to suggest to the
parties that they enter into mediation.
We have no powers to require the parties to complaints to negotiate a fair outcome and failing
that to impose an appropriate outcome we dont have the powers our counterpart in New
South Wales has, for example, to require respondent practitioners in these circumstances to
enter into mediation or in certain circumstances and subject of course to review to caution or
reprimand practitioners or to require them to pay compensation, or to impose conditions on
their practicing certificates.
Nor do we have the powers our counterpart in England & Wales now has following the recent
reforms there to require practitioners to apologise to complainants or to redo the work or
to reduce or waive their fees or to take other steps in relation to the complainant as [our
counterpart] considers just or to order a payment for poor service, loss or distress, such an
award to be enforceable as a debt.
We think for these reasons that the Act obliges us to interpret and apply the concept of
unsatisfactory professional conduct broadly, so that it includes conduct that gives complainants
less than a good or a fair deal and that most people would regard as unsatisfactory in any
ordinary sense of the word but mightnt ordinarily be seen to warrant a disciplinary response.
We think the Act obliges us to deal with complaints about conduct of this kind not as consumer
disputes but as conduct complaints.
We believe however that we can still deal with them in a way that distinguishes them from
complaints that describe more serious misconduct of kinds that warrant a traditional disciplinary
response and the naming and shaming that goes with it. The Act gives us only two options
after we have investigated a conduct complaint either to dismiss the complaint or to initiate
disciplinary proceedings but two grounds to dismiss a complaint. One is that there is no
reasonable likelihood a disciplinary body will make a finding of unsatisfactory professional
conduct or professional misconduct and the other and here is our opportunity is that there is
no public interest in initiating disciplinary proceedings.
The public interest test gives us our opportunity because it is hard to see how it could possibly be
in the public interest to initiate disciplinary proceedings for alleged unsatisfactory professional
conduct at this minor end of the spectrum provided only that the practitioner has apologized
to the complainant or re-done the work or waived some or all of their fee or fixed their office
systems or undertaken some training and the like that is to say, done what they reasonably
can in all the circumstances of the complaint to make good their mistake or to prevent or at
least reduce the risk of it happening again, or both.
So this is our approach to dealing with complaints at the minor end of the spectrum: we deal
with them as conduct complaints, not as consumer disputes, and when after investigation the
facts arent in dispute and appear to give complainants legitimate grounds to feel aggrieved,
we invite respondent practitioners to make submissions that seek to persuade us that no public
interest would be served by initiating disciplinary proceedings. We invite them to persuade us
that they have resolved the problem as best they can or fixed whatever is was that went wrong
so that its unlikely to happen again or both and, if they succeed in persuading us, thats
the end of it: complaint dismissed. If not, our options remain open, and we will look again at
whether to commence disciplinary proceedings.
The system established under the Legal Profession Act 2007 for dealing with complaints
Our first task, when we receive a complaint, is to assess it against a series of threshold criteria
to decide whether we have jurisdiction to deal with it. The assessment process is sometimes
straightforward, but not always. The Act obliges us, for example, to check whether the conduct
that is the subject of the complaint:
was conduct happening in connection with the practice of law if the answer to this
question is no, then we can proceed to deal with the complaint only if the Commission is
satisfied that the conduct would, if established, justify a finding that the practitioner is not a
fit and proper person to engage in legal practice;
happened less than three years before the complaint was received if the answer to this
question is no, then we can proceed to deal with the complaint only if the Commissioner is
satisfied that it is just and fair to deal with the complaint having regard to the extent of, and
the reasons for, the delay or that the conduct may be professional misconduct and it is in
the public interest to deal with the complaint;
might amount to negligence if the answer to this question is yes, then we can proceed
to deal with the complaint only if the lawyer admits being negligent or the negligence is
obvious on its face, and even then any compensation order will be capped at $7,500 unless
both parties agree. As a general rule, only a court of competent jurisdiction can decide if a
practitioner (or anyone else) has been negligent and to award compensation.
Importantly, we have to assess complaints to decide not only whether we can proceed to deal
with them but, if we can, how. The Act gives us different powers and obligations to deal with
a complaint depending on whether the conduct complained of, if the complaint were to be
proved, would amount to unsatisfactory professional misconduct.
The Commissioner has to decide, in other words, applying the statutory definitions, whether
the conduct complained of would if the complaint were proved fall short of the standard of
competence and diligence that a member of the public is entitled to expect of a reasonably
competent Australian legal practitioner or justify a finding that the practitioner is not a fit and
proper person to engage in legal practice and:
if the answer to both questions is no, then the complaint is assessed to be what the Act calls
a consumer dispute and the Commissions powers are limited to suggesting to the parties that
they enter into mediation and either to attempt to mediate the complaint itself or to refer it to
the Law Society or Bar Association for mediation, and thats the end of the matter;
if the answer to either question is yes, then the complaint is classed as what we call a
conduct complaint and the Act obliges us to see to it that the complaint is investigated
and either to investigate the complaint ourselves or to refer it ti the Law Society or the Bar
association for investigation.
Importantly, if the Commissioner decides to refer a conduct complaint or investigation
matter to one of the professional bodies for investigation, the investigation remains subject
to our direction and control and they have no authority to decide how those matters should
be resolved, only to report their findings and recommendations to the Commissioner for
decision.
The Commissioner and the Commissioner alone has power to decide whether the evidence
after investigation is sufficient to warrant a disciplinary response and, if so, the power to initiate
and prosecute disciplinary proceedings.
The Commissioner has to decide whether there is a reasonable likelihood of a finding by a
disciplinary body of either unsatisfactory professional conduct or professional misconduct or,
in relation to offences, whether there is a reasonable likelihood a court will find an offence to
be proved. The Commissioner also has to decide whether it is in the public interest to initiate
disciplinary or court proceedings. These are sometimes quite difficult questions, but:
if the answer to both questions is yes, then the Act obliges the Commissioner to initiate
disciplinary proceedings in either the Legal Practice Tribunal (in relation to more serious
disciplinary matters) or the Legal Practice Committee (in relation to less serious disciplinary
matters) or a court (in relation to offences); and
if the answer to either question is no, then the Act obliges the Commissioner to dismiss the
complaint or investigation matter or in other words, to take no further action in the matter.
John Briton
Legal Services Commissioner
A selection of statistics from the LSC
Theses statistics are taken from the LSC Annual Report 2010-2011 which can be downloaded
from the LSC website at http://www.lsc.qld.gov.au/
Inquiries comprise inquiries made typically be telephone but sometimes in writing, by email or
in person including inquiries about how to make a complaint, informal complaints, and ethical
enquiries.
No. of
enquiries
% of total
2010-11
% of total
2009-10
% of total
2008-09
% of total
2007-08
Costs
891
34.78
31.08
31.48
24.64
Quality of service
384
14.99
17.69
20.05
21.59
Ethical matters
258
10.07
10.64
9.52
8.91
Communication
234
9.13
9.2
7.81
7.6
Advice
105
4.1
7.7
9.36
13.53
Documents
105
4.1
2.47
2.88
3.26
Trust funds
48
1.87
2.05
1.88
2.08
537
20.96
19.17
17.01
18.41
Total
2562
% of total
2010-11
% of total
2009-10
% of total
2008-09
% of total
2007-08
Costs
21
41.18
45.07
27.27
31.37
Quality of service
18
35.29
32.39
30.68
31.37
Ethical matters
9.8
15.91
11.76
Communication
5.88
9.86
14.77
10.78
Documents
5.88
5.63
3.41
11.76
1.96
7.04
7.95
2.94
Total
51
% of total
2010-11
% of total
2009-10
% of total
2008-09
% of total
2007-08
Work practices
36.29
44.74
28.88
29.08
Communication
23.09
24.04
25.74
27.65
Costs
22.06
15.26
18.66
14.47
Timeliness
7.01
4.91
6.09
6.16
Trust accounts
2.68
4.74
10.41
6.59
Conflict of interest
2.47
2.98
4.13
4.01
Supervision
2.06
1.4
2.16
7.31
1.65
0.88
2.75
1.72
Undertakings
1.44
0.7
1.86
Record keeping
1.24
0.35
1.18
1.15
Dont
Managing Expectations
Gain as full an understanding as possible of the clients
requirements and expectations, particularly with regard to
costs and timescales.
Dont assume that all cases are the same, or that you
know all you need to know.
Dont tell the client what they can expect.
First Interview
Ask questions to ensure you have all the required
information from the client.
Dont give the impression that you dont need any input
from the client.
Dont give the client the impression that you will be doing
the work if this is not the case.
Dont assume the client is aware of the all the costs and
consequences.
Advice the client if you think the client should consider using
a solicitor who is more experienced in this area of work.
Complaints handling
Cultural issues
Offer training on client care and communication skills
Client communication
Dont interrupt.
Dont lecture.
matter progresses;
Concerns:
If problems arise, we invite you to contact our Managing Partner to discuss your concerns.
Formal complaints can also be made to the Legal Services Commission on 3406 7737
(Brisbane) or 1300 655 754.