Recap of Eighteen 'Fail-Safe Tips' for Running a Legal Office

For the last eighteen weeks we have been talking about “fail-safe tips” in the area of “administration,” that will allow your law firm to operate on auto-pilot.

This area “administration” is one of the five areas that make up every business in the world. We have already discussed the first area, “clients” or “customers,” and now we will be finishing up the area of “administration” in the next several weeks.

Here is a recap of all of the “fail-safe tips.”

I think the way to do this recap is to come up with a sample client. Let's use the case of “Mary Smith” whose father called me yesterday and said his daughter would be calling me about a personal injury case that she wanted to pursue. The administrative steps to handling this case is as follows:

1. Phone Message System: Mr. Smith's phone message was written up by a staff member as it was left on my voicemail. The phone message was put in reverse chronological order in a stack of phone messages so I would be forced to return the newest messages first and work harder to get to the older messages.

2. Prospective New Matter Reports: The phone message was returned and a meeting was set up with Mary Smith to come in and talk about her personal injury case. The phone message slip was attached to a Prospective New Matter Report and the Prospective New Matter Report was filled out with all the pertinent information. The Prospective New Matter Report stayed at my desk because Mary Smith would be coming in the next couple days for her meeting.

3. Non-engagement letters: If Mary Smith cancels her meeting and does not come in to see me in the very near future, she will get a non-engagement letter from our law firm. Because I am interested in Mary Smith's case, I will be sure that the non-engagement letter is a non-engagement “keep” letter. This letter will remind Mary that there is a statute of limitations that apply to her case, and that she needs to immediately seek the services of a lawyer. Hopefully that lawyer will be me.

4. New Matter Reports: Mary Smith finally does come in to see me in my office, and we enter into an Engagement Letter that serves as a contract between Mary Smith and our law firm for the legal services that are to be performed. A New Matter Report is filled out so that a file can be opened on Mary Smith.

5. Two people signing off on each New Matter Report: After the New Matter Report is filled out, two people in the office need to sign off on the fee arrangement, the conflicts check, the party responsible for bringing the business into the firm, and verify that the appropriate statute of limitations date have been determined with “blue cards” (tickler cards) attached to the New Matter Report that have been properly filled out.

6. A new file for each matter: The file will start off as a manila folder, and will have in it a backboard for Correspondence, a backboard for Notes, Facts, Memorandum, a backboard for Pleadings, and potentially a backboard with regard to Documents and/or Medical Records.

7. A separate billing file for each client: When the client's file is opened with regard to beginning to work on the client's matter, there will also be a separate billing file that will be opened that will be kept by the bookkeeper. Anything involving any time that is kept on this matter or any expenses that are incurred or any bills sent to the client will be kept in this separate billing file.

8. Thank you for referral letters: At the time that the new file for the client's matter is opened, a “thank your for referral” letter to Mary Smith's father will be generated. The letter simply states that we appreciate the referral of this matter to our office, and will look forward to representing this client. We always say at the end of every letter something to the effect of “let us know if we can ever be of help to you or any of your friends and acquaintances.”

9. Tickler cards as a condition for opening a file: As stated above, the “blue cards” (tickler cards) must be attached to the New Matter Report before the staff member can even open the client's file. These “blue cards” are then appropriately filed by month and day and year to be sure that they are pulled at the appropriate time and copies of them are being made to remind lawyers about the work that needs to be done.

10. Out of sight cards: Remember that these “out of sight, out of mind” cards are monthly reminders about the fact that you have a matter in your office and that you should be working on it. I have half the cards come back on the tenth of the month and the other half of the cards come back on the twentieth of the month so that I am not faced with a huge stack of cards at any one time. A copy of the card can be made and a notation put on it to be sent to people who are helping you.

11. For your information copies of client mail: The client receives a copy of the contract they signed at the time they entered into the engagement with you. One of the first things you would do in this case would be to send away for the police report and all medical records. Carbon copies of all these letters go to the client. When this information is received back in the office, carbon copies of everything received including copies of all records can be sent to the client. At a bare minimum, the cover letter that comes with the documents you have requested should be sent to the client.

12. For your information copies of client mail to the responsible lawyer, assigned lawyer and assigned legal assistant: When your mail is opened by a designated staff member, everyone who is working on a particular matter gets at least some notification of the fact that something is either going out or coming in the office with regard to this matter This nonverbal system of communication allows everyone in the office to know what is going on with regard to any given matter they have been assigned to at any given time, and also furnishes the lawyer responsible for the client's matter a vehicle for writing notations on the “for your information” copies that they get that can then be forwarded to other people assigned to the case to remind them about what needs to be done.

13. Automatic time keeping system: Every time a letter goes out of your office and every time something comes in your office with regard to a particular matter, the person responsible for mailing the letter and the person responsible for opening the mail will make what is called a “time” copy. This goes to the person responsible for entering time, and automatically records your time for reviewing outgoing information and incoming information. This can be kept in whatever increment of time you have shown in your engagement letter ranging from tenths of hours to quarter hours, whichever you prefer.

14. Maintaining lawyers’ reading files: In Mary Smith's case, a copy of every request that is made for anything involving Mary Smith's case and eventually the demand letter that is made to the insurance company and information on how the case is ultimately settled, will be kept in an individual lawyer's “reading file” as a permanent record of everything that the lawyer has generated that has gone out of the office.

15. Tickler card and due date system for an office bulletin board: Not only is it a condition precedent for opening a file, but you have to have a system for circulating these cards when the due dates are coming due as well as for posting them in your office so that everyone knows at any given time what is supposed to be happening in your office. You can do this either manually or electronically, but it is important that there be some central location where everyone can look at this location and see what needs to be done on a particular day.

16.Closure letter: When Mary Smith's personal injury case is successfully completed and you have entered into a settlement, you need to be sure to write a letter to Mary Smith indicating to her how much you enjoyed representing her, and that she should contact you in the future if she should ever have any need for your services. Additionally, Mr. Smith needs to get another thank you letter for referring his daughter to your office.

17. Closing files and removing them from active file storage: Mary Smith's matter has now been concluded and you need to have a system for closing her file so that it does not stay in the active file system. The responsible lawyer needs to sign off on the file and close it with the date on the file as to when the file can be destroyed. Only the year is put on the file so you are really ending up keeping the file in some cases for somewhat longer than five years. The file is then placed in the appropriate yearly box. If a matter is closed in the year 2004, it would be in box 2010 and would be destroyed sometime after January 1, 2010. You just simply continue to number the boxes 2010 A, 2010 B, etc. A computerized list is kept of the files that are closed and which box they can be found in.

18. System for organizing files that need to be maintained or destroyed: Mary Smith's file was put in the 2010 A box, her name and matter show up on the computerized list as being in that box, her file is placed in the box, the box is eventually filled and taken off site. In January of 2010 you give directions to the storage company to destroy box 2010. Your Engagement Letter indicated to Mary Smith this is what would happen to her file, she signed off on the letter, and authorized you to destroy the file at a later date.

So there you have it, the saga of Mary Smith's case. The beauty in this “administrative” system is that each of these steps is a “fail-safe” concept. Usually, the next step cannot be taken with regard to the handling of the client's matter until the preceding step is successfully completed. Everybody in the office is trained in the systems, and when the system breaks down you can usually track down the event of breakdown and usually even the culprit.

Next week we return to some additional “administrative” tips on organizing your administrative work flow process in your firm.

Talk to you next week.

Jim Wirken is a civil trial attorney and the Chairman of the Board of The Wirken Law Group in Kansas City.