Risk Management

Fail-safe time-control system can reduce malpractice risk

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).

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