Conduct and service

Managing expectations

All too often, the root cause of complaints that reach the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors can be traced to the solicitor's failure to do anything about managing the client's expectations at the outset of the retainer.

This leads to all kinds of problems when the client, sometimes unjustifiably, feels the solicitor has let him down.

This frequently happens when the client has expectations that are unreasonable, but which could have been moulded at the outset.

Then, when the client complains, because he is perceived as being unreasonable, the solicitor dismisses the complaint.

So the client complains to the OSS.

Even if the complaint does turn out to be unjustified, the solicitor has had to be involved in time-consuming correspondence.

Individuals' expectations can only be discovered by asking them, and then telling them about such things as time-scales and procedure, so the client knows what to expect and when it is reasonable to expect it.

This is a feature often neglected by practitioners who also then miss the opportunity to agree levels of non-legal service, such as the hours during which the solicitor will normally be available.

The results of failing to take these basic precautions can be quite bizarre, as was illustrated by two cases that reached the OSS recently.

One was a simple debt-collecting matter where the solicitor recovered the monies in full within 14 days and was then amazed to find himself facing a complaint of delay.

That complaint was obviously totally unjustified, but it obliged the solicitor to spend time dealing with it - time that could have been saved had the procedures been explained to the client at the outset.

At the root of the second case was a communications problem.

The solicitor did a lot of criminal advocacy.

As a result, he was in court nearly every morning.

However, when he took instructions from his client on a totally different type of case, he neglected to tell this to the client.

The client then got exasperated when he phoned and found the solicitor was never available to speak to him.

A complaint was made which, again, could easily have been avoided.

These are just simple examples.

The proper management of clients' expectations assumes much greater significance in matters which are themselves far more weighty and complicated.

l Every case before the compliance and supervision committee is decided on its individual facts.

These case studies are for illustration only and should not be treated as precedents.

LawyerlineFacing a complaint? Need advice on how to handle it? Contact Mike Frith at LAWYERLINE, the support service offered by the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors; tel: 0870 606 2588.