Risk Management
Fail-safe time-control system
can reduce malpractice risk
New edition of "A Guide to Wisconsin Statutes of Limitations and
Other Time Limits" can help reduce lawyers' number one slipup.
By Ann Massie Nelson
Missed deadlines generate more malpractice claims against lawyers
than any other single error, according to statistics compiled by the
American Bar Association and Wisconsin Lawyers Mutual Insurance Co.
(WILMIC).
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Ann Massie Nelson is director of
communcaitons at Wisconsin Lawyers Mutual Insurance Co. Please e-mail your comments or call (800)
373-3839. |
About 20 percent of legal malpractice claims result from failure to
calendar properly, often when the lawyer fails to act before a statute
of limitations expires. Take for example the law firms that have learned
(the hard way) that six months does not equal 180 days to the Internal
Revenue Service, or the many lawyers who have been burned by Illinois'
shorter (two-year) statute of limitation on personal injury claims.
New guide can help
Deadlines imposed by statute, administrative rules and local courts
are multiplying, creating an even greater need for law firms to develop
fail-safe time-control systems. To assist lawyers in this effort, the
State Bar of Wisconsin, with support from WILMIC, recently published the
1997 edition of A Guide to Wisconsin Statutes of Limitations and Other
Time Limits, an easy-to-use desk reference with more than 400 pages of
statutory and administrative time limits.
In addition to the time limits guide, a number of software programs
or "personal information managers" are available, some of which are
written specifically for law practices. The time-control software you
choose will depend upon the size and nature of your practice. Typically,
these programs enable you to schedule court appearances, client
appointments and meetings; set reminders; prioritize tasks on to-do
lists; cross-check dates; and integrate your calendar with other
programs.
The most current software running on the most powerful hardware
cannot make up for the fallibility of the "warmware," the lawyers and
staff members who use the system.
"Everybody's got a system, but the human element is still the weakest
component," says Sally E. Anderson, claims counsel at WILMIC.
Training is vital
Educating staff members and lawyers to use it is the key to making
any time-control system - manual or electronic - work. The Kohn Law
Firm, a Milwaukee commercial and retail debt collection firm, handles a
high volume of time-sensitive work. Training for the firm's 25 staff
members occurs weekly, with regular review of the firm's time-control
software, a program written specifically for firms engaged in debt
collection.
"Our program is very easy to use," says Brenda Majewski, the firm's
administrator. "We can have an employee with some basic computer
experience functioning on our system within three to four hours."
Majewski's advice for law firms looking for a new time-control
system? "See it in action. Visit another law firm that's using the
system. Then talk with a technical person, not just the sales
person."
Features to consider
The ideal time-control system needs to be:
- Easy to learn and use, for beginning and advanced users.
- Flexible enough to accommodate different work styles and areas of
practice yet simultaneously uniform so that someone else could easily
identify your commitments.
- Redundant. Keep paper calendars and back up your electronic time
control system on disk or tape daily. Store back-up calendars and disks
off site.
- Coordinated among all members of the firm. A common docket not only
helps your staff plan work flow, it sometimes uncovers potential
conflicts of interest.
- Habitual. Checking your time control system needs to be an integral
part of your daily routine. Your system should provide a reminder to
review all open files on a routine basis, even when no action is
anticipated.
- Leakproof. Develop a procedure to make sure the necessary work is
completed before an entry is removed from the system.
When all else fails, you can use the system one Eau Claire lawyer
claims to have perfected. "We have a yellow Labrador that's trained to
point at any file that's ripe," Charles Jordan, Jordan & Wachs,
says. "Seriously, active files should be either marked and filed in your
system or open on your desk. Any file that sits on your credenza for
more than two days is either a client problem or malpractice waiting to
happen."
A Guide to Wisconsin Statutes of Limitations and Other Time Limits is
available from the State Bar of Wisconsin for $35, plus $4 shipping,
plus state and county sales tax. Each WILMIC-insured firm received one
free copy. Additional copies may be purchased from the State Bar by
calling (800) 362-8096 or (608) 257-3838.
Wisconsin Lawyer