From the Vault: CLIA Loss Prevention Bulletin #155: Client Selection

For over ten years, CLIA produced more than 70 articles for our Loss Prevention Bulletin. While discontinued in 2016, the advice shared in some of these articles is timeless and still of value. We’re curating those articles to bring you our ‘From the Vault’ series. The article below is #155 from November, 2003.

Client Selection:

In many professional liability insurance claims against lawyers, the defendant lawyer will confess that “I knew I shouldn’t have taken this file” or “I had a bad feeling about this case”.  Before you take a file, you should think about whether you have the expertise, the experience, and the time to take on a matter in an area of law (or in an area of the country) which is unfamiliar to you.  It’s one thing to stretch yourself and rise to a challenge, it’s another thing to take on matters which you’re not quite competent to handle. 

It’s important to turn down cases when you don’t have the required time or resources to devote to them.  If a case is being offered to you on a contingency fee basis, carefully consider whether you have the financial resources to carry the case and its w.i.p.  If it’s clear that you can’t adequately investigate and pursue a matter because of constraints on your time, send the potential client elsewhere as soon as possible. 

Clients who have unrealistic expectations, or who talk about “just wanting to make their point” or “teaching someone a lesson” can be extremely difficult.  Clients who see conspiracies everywhere are seldom easy to represent.  And always proceed with caution where the client has had other lawyers before you.  As Insurance Department staff at one Law Society are quick to warn: “never be the third lawyer on a file”.

See also Managing Risk: The Art of Client Selection by Thomas J. Watson, reprinted as Loss Bulletin #179, and our recent post To Take a File or Not Take a File.