The day the lights went out

The recent power cuts in North America - which left more than 50 million people without power for up to 30 hours - illustrated the importance of planning to keep your practice running in such circumstances.

Your office might be inaccessible or uninhabitable, and in the case of fire or flooding you might lose files and records.

And what would be your liabilities in terms of missed completions, deadlines and lost working time? So, how should you protect your practice?

The most important part of contingency planning is having someone in charge of organising staff.

He should keep outside the office an up-to-date list of telephone numbers for all partners and employees, so that they could be contacted immediately should disaster strike.

If the office is uninhabitable, you would need an alternative site.

This could be an archive office in another building or another practice's offices or meeting rooms.

A client would rather come to a makeshift office if it means completing on time, as opposed to waiting weeks until your offices are up and running again.

All computer systems should be properly backed up.

The discs used to store such data should be kept in a fireproof and waterproof cabinet and preferably be kept away from the office.

Hard copies of files should also be kept in fireproof and waterproof cupboards and cabinets.

Your files are your main back-up when disputing a claim of negligence and failure to produce them will probably mean that the claim is upheld.

As well as computers, it is important that you also have access to telephones, fax machines, and headed paper.

A client trying to complete against a deadline is not going to be content with the excuse that your fax system and telephone lines were down.

Disaster recovery plans should be an intrinsic part of a law firm's risk management procedures.

Clients are notoriously unsympathetic to anything that might result in their work not being completed as they would like.

Therefore, having a comprehensive system in place should ensure that your business continues as usual in the event of a disaster.

This column was prepared by the Alexander Forbes Professions risk management team