Words of Advice When First Calling a Law Firm
Here are some words of advice to people calling a law firm for the first time. When reviewing these items, keep in mind that there will often be a tension between the
law firm's goals for the phone call and yours. You may want the answer
to what you think is a "simple question." The law firm wants to screen
its calls to determine who it can help (as a client) and who isn't a
good fit as a client. If you don't want to hire the law firm, then your goals will always be at odds with those of the firm.
(1) State your question or desired action at the beginning, so the attorney/receptionist knows if this is even an area of practice for the law firm.
(2) Let the attorney/receptionist guide you by asking questions so she can get the relevant info rather than having to pick out the important facts from the whole story of "what happened". Even if asked open-ended questions like, " What is the problem?", pause in telling your story so the attorney/receptionist can direct the conversation to the relevant facts.
(3) If the attorney/receptionist refers you to someone else, say "Thank you" and end the call, Sometimes we all wanted to be validated by having the person on the other end of the line tell us that yes, the other side is blowing smoke or no, you won't lose your house. But if the firm has just told you that they are not the right person to help you, they are also telling you that they aren't qualified to give you the reassurance you seek.
(4) If the attorney/receptionist tells you that you need to make an appointment so they can flesh out the facts (and get you to hire them, if need be), believe them. If you don't trust or believe this firm, why are you calling them? If you don't want to hire them, why are you calling them?
Notice that #4 differs from what at least one attorney considers good customer service. This law firm handles personal injury, so he will want different information in a phone call than we will to make sure he can help you. Yet I'm not sure how this attorney can honestly answer a question like the "deadline to file a claim" if he hasn't gotten all the details and how he can do that without being hired as the attorney. By telling someone he has until September 30th to file a claim, this attorney would clearly be giving legal advice. If his advice is wrong, the person who relied on that information would clearly feel wronged and may feel he has a claim of malpractice. But the attorney hasn't been hired yet, right? It will be hard to show malpractice when there isn't an attorney/client relationship. How does the attorney know he isn't disqualified to give an answer because of a conflict of interest without asking about all the possible people who might be involved in the case and checking those names against his list of prior clients? Of course, if his list of prior clients is so short he doesn't need to consult it, that tells you something right there. See this website for an explanation as to why all this information can be needed even in the first phone call.
I must admit that I got my back up reading the site that slams attorneys/ receptionists who want a caller to make a commitment to the relationship by setting an appointment. He may think it's bad customer service, but I see it as a way to make sure that we are servicing people who want our service. We have many repeat clients and referrals from clients. We also send out client satisfaction surveys that repeatedly come back with glowing compliments. So our clients are telling us that they like our customer service.
(1) State your question or desired action at the beginning, so the attorney/receptionist knows if this is even an area of practice for the law firm.
(2) Let the attorney/receptionist guide you by asking questions so she can get the relevant info rather than having to pick out the important facts from the whole story of "what happened". Even if asked open-ended questions like, " What is the problem?", pause in telling your story so the attorney/receptionist can direct the conversation to the relevant facts.
(3) If the attorney/receptionist refers you to someone else, say "Thank you" and end the call, Sometimes we all wanted to be validated by having the person on the other end of the line tell us that yes, the other side is blowing smoke or no, you won't lose your house. But if the firm has just told you that they are not the right person to help you, they are also telling you that they aren't qualified to give you the reassurance you seek.
(4) If the attorney/receptionist tells you that you need to make an appointment so they can flesh out the facts (and get you to hire them, if need be), believe them. If you don't trust or believe this firm, why are you calling them? If you don't want to hire them, why are you calling them?
Notice that #4 differs from what at least one attorney considers good customer service. This law firm handles personal injury, so he will want different information in a phone call than we will to make sure he can help you. Yet I'm not sure how this attorney can honestly answer a question like the "deadline to file a claim" if he hasn't gotten all the details and how he can do that without being hired as the attorney. By telling someone he has until September 30th to file a claim, this attorney would clearly be giving legal advice. If his advice is wrong, the person who relied on that information would clearly feel wronged and may feel he has a claim of malpractice. But the attorney hasn't been hired yet, right? It will be hard to show malpractice when there isn't an attorney/client relationship. How does the attorney know he isn't disqualified to give an answer because of a conflict of interest without asking about all the possible people who might be involved in the case and checking those names against his list of prior clients? Of course, if his list of prior clients is so short he doesn't need to consult it, that tells you something right there. See this website for an explanation as to why all this information can be needed even in the first phone call.
I must admit that I got my back up reading the site that slams attorneys/ receptionists who want a caller to make a commitment to the relationship by setting an appointment. He may think it's bad customer service, but I see it as a way to make sure that we are servicing people who want our service. We have many repeat clients and referrals from clients. We also send out client satisfaction surveys that repeatedly come back with glowing compliments. So our clients are telling us that they like our customer service.
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