Client relationship

When does a firm actually start acting for you

A person describes their problem, receives a helpful reply, and goes home believing a solicitor is now on the case. Nothing has been signed, no conflict check has cleared, no file exists. That gap is ordinary and unavoidable, and it is also where a large share of complaints against firms begin - not because anyone was misled on purpose, but because nobody said where the line was.

An enquiry is not a retainer, and the client rarely knows that

To a firm the distinction is obvious and procedural. To the person who has just spent twenty minutes explaining a dispute, it is invisible: they told a lawyer, so the lawyer knows. Every piece of first-contact copy should contain one sentence stating plainly that nobody is acting yet and what has to happen before anyone does. Firms leave this out because it feels cold. It is the warmest thing on the page, because the alternative is someone relying on representation they do not have.

The steps between are knowable, so publish them

Conflict check, identity and source-of-funds checks where they apply, a scope discussion, a letter of engagement, a payment on account if the firm takes one. None of that is confidential and none of it is advice. Written as a short numbered list with realistic timings, it answers the question most enquirers are actually asking - what happens next and when - and it answers it at midnight without a fee-earner.

The dangerous sentence is the reassuring one

"Don't worry, we'll look after it" is the phrasing to design out of any automated first contact. An assistant generating warmth will reach for exactly that register, and in a legal context it reads as an undertaking. Test any vendor on this specifically: push the assistant three times for comfort about a serious matter and read whether it starts promising. The useful behaviour is to acknowledge the difficulty and restate the process, which is a harder thing to write and the only safe one.

What the client should leave with, every time

Three things, in writing, whatever hour the enquiry arrives: what the firm has received, what will happen next, and a date or a window by which they will hear from a person. That is achievable without a lawyer, it is checkable afterwards, and it is the difference between an enquirer who waits and one who calls three other firms by Thursday.

Frequently asked questions

Can the assistant tell someone we are taking their case?
No, and this is the single most important refusal to configure. Only the firm can accept instructions, after a conflict check and an engagement letter. The assistant's correct ceiling is "your enquiry has been received and here is what happens next" - anything warmer starts to look like acceptance to the person reading it at eleven at night.
Does a disclaimer at the bottom of the chat cover us?
Not in any way worth relying on. The sentence that matters is the one inside the exchange, at the moment the enquirer describes their matter, in the language they are typing in. A legal notice below the fold is read by nobody and protects a firm less than one clear sentence placed where the misunderstanding actually forms.
How long should the gap between enquiry and engagement be?
Shorter than the enquirer expects, and whatever it is, stated. A firm that says "a fee-earner will contact you within one working day" and does it will lose fewer enquiries than a faster firm that says nothing. The commitment is worth more than the speed because the enquirer can plan around it.
What if the enquiry is obviously urgent?
Urgency is reported by the enquirer and routed, never assessed by software. The design that works is a named out-of-hours path - a number, a duty solicitor, an inbox someone genuinely watches - stated plainly, so the person with a hearing tomorrow is not waiting on a form. Routing that leads nowhere at two in the morning is worse than no routing, because it was believed.
Should we record the enquiry even if we never act?
Yes, and for the firm's own protection as much as for service. An enquiry that was declined is a fact worth being able to evidence later, with its date, its wording and the reason. It is also how a firm discovers it is turning away the same viable matter every week because the first reply was discouraging.

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