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ISSUES FOR SMALL FIRMS AND SOLO PRACTITIONERS
December 10, 1998
By: Derrick H. Wilson
20 TIPS TO AVOID INSANITY AND MALPRACTICE
I. PERSONAL INJURY LAWYERS
A. Status Memo
Maintain a status memo identifying all personal injury cases you have and the next step to be done on the personal injury case. The memo should keep track of whether suit has been filed, pertinent facts, demands and insurance coverage. The memo should be reviewed every 45-60 days and a copy should be made available to each and every attorney working on personal injury cases. This little technique helps insure that personal injury cases are, in fact, moving forward. It also forces you to make a plan for how your case progresses. I have used this in our firm for the last year and it has really moved our PI cases along.
B. Records Requests
When you request records, automatically send a records certification so that you don't receive the records then have to have them certified at a later date. It only took me seven years to figure this one out.
C. Set Guidelines
Set guidelines for cases you will accept. Our firm adopted a rule requiring a certain amount of medical specials absent very unusual facts. Some attorneys were simply picking up cases with the assumption they would settle, when the medical specials did not justify taking the case at the outset.
D. Negotiate With Vendors
One attorney in our office does plaintiff employment discrimination cases. She was concerned about taking depositions in a particular case, but was able to negotiate a discount with the court reporter by simply asking.
II. DIVORCE PRACTICE
A. Use An Intake Sheet
Have a pre-prepared form that requests basic information from your client: number of children, age, date of marriage, everything your secretary needs to prepare the pleadings. There is nothing worse than taking your notes and realizing you forgot to ask one or more questions of the client.
B. Use Computerized Support Program
As the majority of my practice is in Indiana, it includes a decent amount of divorce work. There is excellent computer program which allows me to rapidly do the child support guidelines, save them and run different scenarios for my client's benefit. It is much easier than risking a mathematical error on your calculator or spreadsheet. It also looks much more professional to the Court.
C. Keep Your Tools With You At All Times
For divorce practitioners, they should always have a calculator, the child support guidelines table and your day planner. Why carry around the entire rules of court or the KRS volume on child support guidelines if you only need the table.
D. Keep Track Of Delinquent Clients
The divorce practice can be financially worthwhile, but it also has the highest problem of collection. Keep problem clients on a tight reign. Set up guidelines in your firm for how far out a client can get before receiving a letter from your billing person. If at all possible, have your firm adopt policies so that the client understands that you cannot unilaterally modify those policies and that payment plans must be met or you will withdraw. Obviously, depending on where the case is at, ethically you may not be able to withdraw, but it's easy to see that the client who owes you $1,000 and plans to pay it at $50.00 a month will need some kind of service prior to the year and a half it will take him to catch up the payments.
E. Cross Market
Clients who are going through a divorce will often need a new will. At the end of the divorce, remind your client that you will be happy to revise their will if they want. Divorce clients can be one of your most fruitful sources of business.
F. Never Guarantee Instant Pleadings
It used to be a practice in our office to have the pleadings prepared as the client waited. Not only did this cause pressure upon the secretaries, in my mind it also increased client expectations to the effect that they understood that they could get things almost instantaneously anytime. Unless an emergency exists, tell the client the pleadings will be ready in two days. This is particularly appropriate if the client says the money will be in in a day or so and you have doubts.
III. DEFENSE PRACTICE
A. Keep Tabs On Upcoming Events
It is easy to keep track of when motions are due and when the Complaint has to be answered. It is more difficult to docket forward when people are to respond to your interrogatories or your requests for information. Whenever you send out interrogatories, docket forward 45 days for a response. (Ok, the time limit is 33 days, but by the time you send them out and you get them in hand, 45 days is probably reasonable). If an attorney is supposed to give you deposition dates in a week, docket forward 10 days to see if you got those dates. This moves the case along and avoids those uncomfortable phone calls from your insurance company asking if you received the interrogatory responses that are now two months overdue.
B. Time Keep As You Do It
This seems incredibly basic, but many times, on a busy day, it is easy to look down and realize that you haven't kept any time and it is now 4:00 p.m. and you are trying to recreate an entire day. Even if you can't put down specifically what was being done as you go along the present business, put down at least the client so you can fill in the blanks later on. Some time it is amazing how much money can be lost simply by not recording all your time as you do it.
C. Avoid Recreating The Wheel .
If you are going to depose Dr. X, call your insurance company and see if anyone has depositions on Dr. X. Alternatively, do a name search on Lexis or Westlaw for cases where the expert testified and then contact the attorneys in the case. This may already be in your billing guidelines, but even if it is not, go ahead and do it. The client will appreciate the fact that you are checking on that information. If a particular issue has been raised before by the company, get briefs from the lawyer who worked on the case. Even if it is an argument that was ultimately a loser at the Court of Appeals level, it can be helpful to get the briefs to see what the arguments were and if the arguments fit within your case.
IV. GENERAL PRACTICE TIPS
A. Look For Free Or Inexpensive Resources .
For example, Spalding has a paralegal intern program where you can have a paralegal work for free in your office for a number of weeks. (Just when you thought the concept of indentured servitude had been completely repudiated.) We have used paralegal interns over the last four years, have generally been pleased with the paralegals and the assistance was greatly needed. If you need artwork for your office, check out the local library collection.
B. Use, Don't Abuse, Technology
If you are sending 50 interrogatories to a party or you receive 50 interrogatories, make sure a disc is available for review by the other party. Why have your secretary spend an hour a half retyping interrogatories when the other side can send you the disk and all you have to do is type in your responses. The judge might also find it handy to have your proposed findings of fact on disk.
C. Know Where To Go For Free Research
Although this topic has been covered in other seminars, there are many great sites for getting free forms. Recently I had to find the new UCC-1 form and I found it on line and downloaded it and my client merely had to type in the information. That form cost $20.00 from another state. Try findlaw.com for starters.
D. Read Your Pleadings
I have personally found that while my ability to generate more pleadings based upon standardized forms and the like has increased, my willingness to review the forms in detail has decreased. Even if it is form you have used 20 times, make sure that the form fits and the information is accurate. Likewise, reliance on spell check is not sufficient to catch context.
E. Always Keep Your Time
In a small firm, regardless of the practice, timekeeping makes sense. It makes sense because it is a gauge of your productivity. You should be able to determine if you are making money on the cases you take, particularly personal injury lawyers. Personal injury lawyers may assume that they are making $150.00 an hour without realizing they are making a lot less because they simply do not recall how much time they spent on a particular case. Likewise, if the client later on has complaints about your work or the value of your services, having the time may be useful. Finally, regardless of the type of case, timekeeping assures that you have a back up record of things that were done on a particular case. In a recent collection matter, a client made certain allegations about the work performed. By simply going through my time records, I could go through item by item about when the client authorized a particular transaction and when the client was present for certain negotiations. Based upon your time spent versus money received, what's your most profitable practice area?
F. Utilize The "Scotty Principle"
In Star Trek, Commander Scott always gave himself a little bit of fudge room to correct whatever was ailing the Enterprise. Lawyers should try to do the same. Even though on Monday it looks like you can turn around a project in two days, unless the client is pressing for it, tell the client it will take three days. You have no idea what will happen between Monday and Wednesday. Likewise, if you are an associate in the firm, you may want to build a fudge factor for your boss's project. To the extent you can, ask the three magic questions: What's the scope of the project? When it is due? How much time should I spend? Give yourself a little room, if you can, to complete the project to make sure that you have all the final details in. You never know when your secretary will be preoccupied on another project or the project becomes much more difficult than you understand.
H. Have A Decent Calendar
This seems pretty innocuous, but there are certain things you should have with your calendar at all times which you may not find in some calendars. You should have a list of all the major Louisville law firms in your calendar at all times. You should have a calculator at all times. You should have phone numbers for all the courts that you practice in. It is very handy to have a day timer or some other calendar where you switch the information in and out rather than adding this information every year.
I. One File At A Time
My practice in my office, which generally works very well, is that I have one file on my desk that I am actively working on at any time. It sounds trite, but in the past when I got two new files on my desk, I would immediately browse those files and see what needs to be done. Focus on one file, finish that file and put it away. Likewise, if I have nine files on my desk at one time, even if I am working on one file, it makes it more difficult for me to focus on the project and documents have been known to go in the wrong file. When you are finished the file, put it away. When you leave your office, there should only be one file on your desk that you are actively working on for the day.
J. Read The Rules
Every so often go through and re-read the local rules and the civil rules of procedure. It is amazing how much you will forget if you have not read over them and used them on an ongoing basis, even if you do litigation on a regular basis. There may be certain rules that you haven't been exposed to where an issue has not been raised for a long time, particularly in federal court.
K. Civility Pays Dividends
Much has been written about civility and professionalism in the recent past. Granted, civility is a good thing that should be encouraged on its own merits, but civility pays tangible dividends. I practice largely in southern Indiana. With 90% of the lawyers I deal, a phone call is all I need to continue a hearing, or get an extension of time for discovery. Any time I have to actually prepare a motion to continue, a motion for enlargement of time, or send a confirmation letter, it costs me time, and it costs my clients money. Responding to a motion to compel when the lawyer has never given you a phone call requesting the information, also takes time and costs your client money. By the same token, making a phone call and getting the discovery five days later rather than filing the motion compel, setting it for hearing and getting it five days later, makes economic sense.
L. Develop A Firm Statement
How many times a day are you asked what your firm does? What is your response? You should have a clear statement about what your firm is about and what your role in the firm is. Part of that is to have business card with you at all times, but it is much more important that people understand what you do rather than saying you are a general practice firm. A general practice firm doesn't tell prospective clients anything.
M. Cross Market
If you do corporation work, inevitably your clients will probably need some help with employment issues. If you have someone in your office who does employment issues, make sure that your client is aware of that. If you notice a need that your client has, gently mention that you would be happy to address that need, perhaps by giving your client a seminar or some basic information about it.
N. Get A Life
Many of the things which were ostensibly designed to make our lives better, for example, technology, have actually made our lives more stressful because things move at such a faster rate. Everything now must be faxed and overnighted rather than sent normal mail. Stress is literally a killer. Take time out for some things and plan as much on your personal career as you do with your professional career.
(i) Get hobbies. Focus on something that is completely unrelated work that you enjoy and try to do it, whether it be golf, scuba diving, reading or the like;
(ii) Get into a regular regimen of exercise. For 1999, plan on developing an exercise program. It can be very simple, but start it now. Aside for sharpening you physically, it also sharpens you mentally and helps relieve some stress. As part of that program, get a physical examination every two years.
(iii) Take a vacation. When I talked to people who haven't taken a vacation for two years, I can't imagine how they haven't done it. A vacation gives you time for mental rewind and also provides some quality time with your friends, spouses or significant others.
(iv) Be involved. Lawyers have so many time pressures as it is, it is difficult to see picking up new time consuming activities. Find an organization that you enjoy and get involved in it. Aside from potential networking benefits, it's nice to socialize with people away from the office, particularly if you are in a small office and don't have the opportunity to interact with a lot of other people on a regular basis. The bar association is an excellent way to develop ties and the sharing of information.
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