TLIE Top Tip: Prompt Response, Part II
TLIE Top TipsIn Part I of our TLIE Top Tip: Prompt Response, we advised that lawyers communicate with their clients regularly, and determine how their clients define “promptness.”
Another best practice is to strive to respond to requests within one business day. That response doesn’t have to be the full answer, and we can even enlist others in our offices to provide a preliminary acknowledgment that the client’s request has been received and a full response is forthcoming.
Lawyers’ failures to promptly respond to requests for information routinely lead to dissatisfied clients, grievances, and malpractice claims. Responding within one business day, even if it’s simply an acknowledgment, helps clients feel “heard” and “respected” and will help maintain a positive, trusting relationship. Another way to think of this is, “if I were the client, how quickly would I like a response?” Setting expectations early, and providing preliminary responses timely, will build a healthy client-lawyer relationship.
