More than half of solicitors have a poor understanding of their firms' procedures and file management systems, according to a state-of-the-art data gathering system being rolled out in many law firms.

The statistics were generated from more than 500 assessments of solicitors and other fee earners in more than 10 major and mid-tier law firms by AFP Consulting using a new a tool, AFInsite.

Some of the results were positive: 89% of solicitors had a high understanding of their firm's client communication procedures, 74% demonstrated understanding of time management, client care and retainer systems.

But 35% had a low understanding of risk awareness procedures and file management systems, 62% had a low understanding of their firms' file management systems and procedures, and 5% totally misunderstood their firms' risk awareness procedures.

Solicitors in law firms carry out a computerised assessment in which they are quizzed on their understanding of their firms' systems, how confident they are in that understanding, and their speed at reaching the answers.

Several thousand solicitors and other fee earners are currently in or awaiting assessment.

Richard Carroll, Director, AFP Consulting said that the AFInsite programme will enable firms to identify individual fee earners who need further training or support or to identify overall areas of weaknesses in their procedures on a firm-wide basis.

Nick Jarrett-Kerr, chairman of the Law Society's Law Management Section, said: 'Anything that highlights the evident gross ineptitude in law firms and helps people be more logical and more on the ball has go to be a good thing.'

LINKS www.afpconsulting.co.uk

By Jeremy Fleming