The importance of Client Care Letters for Solicitors

We can't complain if we get into trouble with our clients. After all, most professional bodies have been telling us for years that we must issue engagement letters.

But for many busy lawyers, the whole business of issuing client care letters can be a nightmare and often takes a long time.  

However, when something goes wrong, one thing is very certain - not having an engagement letter is going to bring you problems and potentially cost you a lot of money.

Are Client Care Letters necessary?
Although lawyers are best placed to make sure their engagement letters cover everything that has been agreed, all too often they leave much to be desired. With the challenging economic situation in which we now exist, it seems that claimants will be doing their best to ensure that they get paid what's due to them, particularly when they lose money and blame their solicitor. As Brenda Hannigan, Professor of Corporate Law at Southampton University aptly puts it: "Businesses everywhere are poring over their contracts, looking to see what protection they provide and hoping the drafting is up to scratch."In bad times, every word in a contract must be scrutinised to see if what was intended in a contract actually works in practice.

In recent years, litigation against lawyers and other professional advisers has increased both in scale and frequency.  Best practice for complying with Rule 2 of the Rules of Professional Conduct is for lawyers to issue a formal client care letter defining their relationship with the client. Whilst engagement letters are not a panacea for all disputes and disagreements, and they don't always protect legal professionals from litigation, they make good business sense because:  

  • They help prevent misunderstandings between the lawyer and the client by describing, in writing, the mutual understanding of the terms and conditions of the engagement.
     
  • They eliminate any staff misunderstandings by providing those involved on the engagement with the specifics of the services to be rendered. 
     
  • They enhance client communications - as  regularly issued and updated engagement letters help to avoid expectation gaps for services to be rendered. By re-emphasising both the value and the scope of services in advance, solicitors can improve clients' overall satisfaction with professional services rendered. The satisfied customer is more likely to continue or expand a relationship with his/her lawyer.
     
  • They can be an effective marketing tool for clients and prospects as you can easily promote related services by mentioning them in your engagement letters.
     
  • They reduce any potential legal liability by defining the responsibilities of both the lawyer and the client.


Some years ago, when Bizezia created an engagement letter system (called Contract Manager) for accountants, the aim was to have something that would simplify the whole process, eliminate uncertainty with the client, and make it very easy to agree terms - including fees payable.  It also had to be a management system that brought up the original engagement letter for updating as and when required.

We came to the conclusion that what was needed was a very detailed 'Terms of Business' letter that took into account all the risk management clauses we would all like to see. To this important letter, my idea was to append schedules for each category of work to be undertaken for the client.

Today, Bizezia provides the Contract Engine with 200+ fully-editable client care letter templates together with market-leading terms and conditions.  It has proved popular because it's easy to use and is the only engagement letter system in the world that provides a management system.

Notes

  • Bizezia provides high quality, unique website marketing apps and practice management tools. Bizezia's products are designed to make business easier, encourage people to to visit your website and to keep them coming back.
     
  • The Bizezia Contract Engine contains over 200 fully-editable client care letter templates together with market-leading terms and conditions.
     
  • Bizezia's EziaNews is an ideal example of how to keep your website current and informative. It's a daily round-up of business news that can be placed on to your website with no effort on your part and gives your clients, prospects and staff instant access to the latest business news. 
     
  • Bizezia can trace its roots back to 1986, at a time when accountants were beginning to develop innovative marketing strategies for the first time. Then, with the launch of the Internet, Martin Pollins, founder of Bizezia, saw a new business opportunity to provide marketing and administrative products specifically for professionals serving SMEs, which would be available on their own websites with the aim of attracting potential clients and improving the level of service to existing clients. 
     
  • Martin Pollins, chairman and founder of Bizezia, is a Chartered Accountant with wide experience in corporate finance and business management. He ran his own accountancy firm in Sussex and was the first accountancy firm in the UK to advertise on television. Martin went on to create and launch the CharterGroup Partnership (the UK's first accountancy network) and then LawGroup UK, one of the largest networks of lawyers in the country. He also served on the ICAEW Council for several years. 
     
  • Operations director, Iman Rouane, is an honours journalism graduate, who has worked on a number of magazines, including Marie Claire and BBC Eve and was also a freelance newsreader for several radio stations across the south east. She joined Bizezia in 2005.