Anyone in the legal profession is more than aware how much expertise, time and attention we put into case work for our clients. Sadly, what many clients just see is a high hourly rate followed by a substantial invoice. It is unrealistic to expect a client to simply pay up for such an intangible distress purchase without question.
So, here are five ways to help clients understand and manage their costs.
1. Preparation is everything
Clients who are going through an emotional or stressful period in their lives are likely to be disorganised. When time is chargeable, that lack of planning can ultimately result in increased fees. If you set a clear agenda for your meetings with you, and provide a checklist of required documentation, it will save you and your client time and money.
2. Set clear goals on both sides
Transparency starts with both sides understanding what your client’s key objectives are. They may want to retain their former matrimonial home, for example. If so, they need to tell you that, so their case can be progressed with that objective firmly in mind
It’s also your responsibility as a legal professional to point out if a client’s expectations are unrealistic at the outset. Otherwise, clients will become upset if several thousand pounds down the line, you haven’t fulfilled those expectations.
3. Transparent charging
The SRA Transparency rules changed on 25 November 2019, when the SRA Handbook was replaced with the new SRA Standards and Regulations. The new rules require you to provide clients with details of:
• the total cost of your services
• the basis for your charges
• the probable costs of disbursements
• all services that are included in the price
Such levels of transparency will end the dreaded post-case scrutiny of invoices by clients, which is time-consuming (and non-chargeable) work. As legal professionals, we know the amount of work that goes into various tasks that actually clients view as easy or simple.
4. Avoid email ping-pong
This is a particular bug-bear for the LGFL Directors! Email ping pong is when a client sends a long email to you, and wants a detailed reply in return. That reply prompts another email, which requires another long reply, until the situation becomes rapidly confused. What’s more, in our experience, such lengthy emails simply raise more questions than they answer.
Clients need to be made aware that the time you spend reading their super-lengthy email and constructing your reply is chargeable. Even if your firm’s T&Cs set out your email charges, clients may not fully understand them.
Sometimes it’s just easier for clients to simply pick up the phone and talk, or book an appointment. The same applies to documents sent as attachments - someone in your office has to sort them out and save them as required, and that too takes time.
5. Don’t hit Send at midnight
Clients are only human, so they can and do get upset, angry, annoyed and frustrated. Unfortunately, this can often spill over into a whole set of new instructions fired off at night, which are the result of an emotive reaction to something said or done. Gently remind your clients that leaving an email unsent at night and checking it in the morning enables them to reflect in the cold light of day, and then give measured instructions to action.
By being straightforward and clear with clients, especially over costs, we as legal professionals can help our clients avoid unnecessary expense, and save ourselves a lot of wasted time and effort too. It really is a win-win scenario.