Risk Management

Voice Mail Puts Onus on Lawyer to Respond

By Ann Massie Nelson

Short of having yourself cloned, voice mail may be the best way to become the lawyer who is out of sight but virtually never out of reach.

Voice mail can enhance your communications with clients, other lawyers and staff:

• Callers can leave lengthy messages for you at any time, from any location, with fewer concerns about errors in transcription or interpretation of written phone messages.
  
  
• You can save time trading "call-me-back" messages with clients and lawyers who frequently are on the phone or out of the office. Gone is the stack of message slips on your desk.
  
  
• You can retrieve voice mail messages at any time, from any telephone. Even faxes can be left on voice mail and retrieved from any fax machine.
  
  
• You can forward voice mail messages to a staff person or colleague when you're working after hours or at another location.
  
  
• With express messaging, you can dial directly into a staff member's voice mailbox and leave detailed information and instructions, without interrupting work flow.
  
  
• Sole practitioners and small firms can use voice mail to save staff time and limit overhead.

Access at a price

Voice mail and round-the-clock accessibility come with a price, however. Some of the same functions that make voice mail so useful can be hazards for lawyers:

Callers expect you to retrieve and respond to voice mail messages - at any time, from any location. A common misperception (or sometimes a convenient assumption) is that a message left is a message received. Now you're "It," and the burden is on you to act upon the information.

• Messages can be forwarded to other voice mailboxes - even to cellular phone voice mailboxes - without callers' knowledge, possibly violating client confidentiality.
  
  
• Callers to your firm may wind up in voice mail "jail," where every extension is answered by yet another voice mail greeting with no apparent escape route.
  
  
• The message slips that served as visual reminders on your desk or in your briefcase have vanished.

Eight voice mail tips

How can you benefit from voice mail technology without creating new risks for legal malpractice? Follow these recommendations, offered by Jerry McAdow, a Madison attorney; Wally Pullar, a voice mail supplier; and a new State Bar of Wisconsin videotape.

1) Ideally, a person should answer all incoming telephone calls. Most callers prefer to speak with a live person who knows of your whereabouts and who gives them the option of leaving a voice mail message, a written message or speaking with someone else in the firm. The receptionist or operator needs to determine if the call is an emergency.

2) Keep your recorded greeting brief. Speak clearly and include your name, firm name, the date and a brief itinerary. Encourage callers to leave a message.

For example: "This is Jerry McAdow at Lathrop & Clark. Today is Wednesday, Oct. 1. I'll be out of the office this morning. I will return this afternoon. Please leave a message at the tone or call extension 242 to speak with my assistant. Or, press 0 now to return to the receptionist."

3) If you don't have an assistant or receptionist, then your greeting needs to be carefully scripted to direct callers to the appropriate alternative. Some voice mail systems have a notification option that will forward messages to your pager, home phone or cellular phone. In your greeting, let callers know that their messages may not be confidential should they choose one of these forwarding options.

4) Change your greeting daily. If you're going to be away for more than a day, tell callers the date you expect to return. (For security reasons, avoid telling callers you are out of town.) For example: "I will be out of the office for several days. I will return Wednesday, Oct. 8."

If you're unable to check your voice mail messages every day, authorize someone else in your firm to check your mailbox in your absence.

5) Give callers an opportunity early in your greeting to begin recording their message if your voice mail system features an exit option. For example: "To skip the rest of this greeting, press 5 now."

6) Keep a log of your voice mail messages, including the date, time, caller's name and the subject. McAdow keeps his log in spiral notebooks, which later are filed. Like the traditional carbon phone message pads, these logs can yield valuable information if a question about a voice mail message arises later.

With computer-telephone integration, voice mail messages can be logged and recorded on your computer system, according to Pullar of Madison Telecom Inc. (Computer-telephone integration, or "CTI," presents several questions about attorney-client communication that are beyond the scope of this article.)

7) Be aware when you leave voice mail messages that your messages can be forwarded - even broadcast - to other mailboxes on the same system. Some systems allow callers to tag messages as private so that the message cannot be forwarded.

8) Encourage voice mail users in your firm to change their passwords regularly to reduce the chances for unauthorized access. If you authorize someone else to check your voice mail, give them the current password.

For more information about telephone, voice mail and email communications in law firms, contact the State Bar of Wisconsin at (800) 728-7788 regarding the videotape, "Professional Communications in the Law Office: Telephones, Voice Mail and Beyond."

Wisconsin Lawyer