General Solo & Small Firm Section December 1996 Newsletter Articles

 

Taking the Right Case

Office Procedure Manuals

Book Review
The Business of Practicing Law: The Work Lives of Solo and Small Firm Attorneys

Lawyers are often concerned with not getting cases but quite frequently equally as troublesome is taking the wrong case. While our objective is certainly to serve the needs of our clients, we do not want to go broke in the process and each case must be evaluated not only from the standpoint of can we be beneficial to the client, but also will the case be cost effective for our office. The cost of taking a case is not only the use of lawyer time and staff time but also out-of-pocket expenses and other overhead properly allocable to the file.

Spencer Miller, a Personal Injury Practitioner in Kansas City, Missouri, developed a mathematical formula for analyzing a case and deciding if it should be accepted by his firm. This formula perhaps can be adapted to your individual practices.

In using this formula, line 5, the amount the attorney expects to get must exceed line 8, the amount the attorney has to make for the case to be financially feasible. Moreover, if the cost of the case exceeds your fee percentage of the expected recovery, the case is not worth your time. Additionally, as in all cases, the lawyer should consider whether or not the client is likely to be satisfied with any result. It would be better to pass on the case than to risk a disgruntled client.

Analysis of Case Acceptance
1. Impression of case value $
2. Less: anticipated expenses $
3. Net anticipated value (1-2) $
4. Chances of success %
5. Realistic value (4x30) $
6. Required value based on type of contract $
7. Case resolution possibilities:
a. Trial - 100 percent of chart
b. Courthouse steps - 80 percent
c. After discovery - 50 percent
d. During discovery - 40 percent
e. Before discovery - 30 percent $
8. Required value based on resolution
possibilities (6x7)

Expense Projections for Case Review if Case Goes to Trial
1. Medical records
a. Medical malpractice $500 $
b. Complex medical $350 $
c. Routine $200 $
2. Expert fees
a. Medical
(1) Retained: x $10,000 $
(2) Treating: x $5,000 $
b. Economic x $3,000 $
c. Other:
(1) Psychologist $
(2) Human factors $
(3) Accident reconstruction $
(4) Engineers $
(5) Others $
3. Deposition Expenses
a. Regular, we take: x $400 $
b. Regular, we attend: x $175 $
c. Videotape: x $500
4. Exhibits
a. Complex @ $1,200 ea. $
b. Routine @ $300 ea. $
c. Special $
5. Other
a. Travel expenses
(1) Lawyer $
(2) Client $
b. $

The small firm has the same organizational and legal requirements that the large firm has for practice systems, file maintenance, confidentiality and employee management. Fortunately, the smaller firms do not have the bureaucracy that makes changes difficult and therefore can take advantage of the latest developments in not only equipment but procedures. Having set and standardized procedures allows each of us to work not harder but more efficiently.

It is essential that we adopt standard procedures for calendars, docket control, work flow, sorting and distribution of mail, handling of phone calls, receipt of faxes, making of copies and therefore it is imperative that everyone working in the office be familiar with these procedures. Each time a file is opened or organized, closed, a letter typed or a bill sent, the person performing that function should be following office procedures established by the attorney(s) that conform(s) to their specific needs and desires.

Having written guidelines provided: 1. Increased Productivity
2. Lower Cost
3. Designation of Responsibility
4. Standardization
5. Reduction in Training Time for New Staff
6. Continuity of Effort

A typical procedures manual would consider such topics as:


Even the smallest office is subject to personnel change and the use of temporary services. Having an office procedures manual can certainly speed up the process of having a new or temporary employee understanding the operation of the office and being of immediate service to the firm. It is recommended that this manual be kept in such a form that it can be amended easily and frequently as the needs and desires of the firm change.

Finally, someone has written a book dedicated to the Solo and Small Firm Legal Practitioner. The book was written by a sociologist who was interested in studying the work lives and related concerns of such attorneys. The author is a sociology professor in the Baruch College School of Public Affairs of the City of New York. In preparation for writing her book, she interviewed more than 100 small firm practitioners. Her work was financed in part by the American Bar Association.

She concludes that small firm practitioners have far more hectic lives in balancing the pressures of their practice including marketing, technology and case load against personal lives than do lawyers with large firms. However, she also concludes that these lives, for the most part, are very fulfilling.

Her study finds that the biggest problem of the professional life of the small firm practitioner is dealing with clients. They also find that their days are “dominated by the telephone”. Small firm practitioners feel that they should always be available to their clients and therefore usually take calls as they come in rather than limiting telephone conferences to a certain time frame. Unlike larger firms, the small firm rarely has an established partnership track and handles making partner on an individual basis. One lawyer noted that associates are made partners when realized that you can’t live without them and you are afraid that they will go somewhere else.

Professor Seron identified what she classified as two types of small firm lawyers, the entrepreneurial lawyer and the professional attorneys continued to maintain higher standards by screening cases and turning down work that they did not feel they were competent to handle or was within their realm of expertise.

In looking at the gender difference, she found that lawyers trying to balance a family life tended to rely on their spouse for child care if they were male or devoted 50% of their time to practice and 50% to family activities if they were female.

The book is available from the Temple University Press and may be ordered by calling 215-204-8787.