A Few Thoughts about Personal Injury Attorneys and Customer Service February 20, 2012

When my husband and I decided to work together, we focused first on the purpose and principles for our business. We wanted to do things the way we thought they should be done and that meant building a customer-centric law practice. That’s not simply a buzzword: we wanted a practice where clients were the center of everything we did.  We wanted to make a difference in our client’s lives by delivering the most compensation for their losses and delivering world class customer service. We live in an increasingly uncaring, complex and impersonal world and we wanted to weigh against that tide: we wanted to deliver great personal service.

We built our law firm on four objectives:

• Communication
• Education
• Moving cases as quickly as possible
• Maximizing compensation

Our commitment to customer service – and particularly our commitment to the principles of communication and education – infuses everything we do. We know how we would feel as clients: we would want to know everything that was happening.  We would want to know everything our attorney did on our behalf. We would want someone to explain the settlement process and the legal process. We would want our lawyer to consult with us on what we wanted. We would want to know that we could call or email our attorney with questions and receive prompt answers. We know this is what we would want and this is the experience that we strive to deliver to our clients.

We understand that much of what an attorney does for a client can be an invisible. Therefore, we strive to tell our clients about everything we do for them. Our mantra in the office is that every time we touch a client’s case, we touch the client. Do something for a client and let them know what we are doing. We write everything in plain English – no legalese, no arcane language. We write to serve our clients.

Our Client Deliverables

Much of what lawyers do is invisible to a client. A client could do good work on behalf of a client, but never communicate that work to the client. We never want our clients to feel in the dark about the status of their case. Clients should feel confident that they know what is happening with their cases and that their lawyer is doing everything possible for them

We needed to find a way to keep our clients informed every step of the way of the status of their cases and the work done on their behalf. We developed the concept of Client Deliverables based on practices Mark employed in his consulting work. When a client retains our firm, our services include our Client Deliverables. The Client Deliverables are written documents promised to our clients to ensure they understand the status of their case, the value of their case, the work we are doing on the case and what they should expect next.

Our Client Deliverables are unique in the law field. We know of no other personal injury and medical malpractice firm that provides Client Deliverables the way we do. As far as we know, we are the first firm in America to make such a commitment to our clients.

We constantly evaluate and evolve our Client Deliverables. We started with five deliverables and now we commit to delivering nine core Client Deliverables:

1. Welcome Kit: This package provides an overview of the legal process and the services we deliver for our clients. It also contains all the papers a client will need to sign to retain us to represent them and to begin investigating the case.
2. Case Kick-Off Letter: As soon as we receive a signed retainer from a client, we immediately start work on the case. This letter informs the client of the actions we are taking and what impact this may have on them. It reviews the filing of a claim letter or Notice of Claim, the requests for medical records and the first steps of the investigation.
3. Fact Sheet: This document presents the results of our initial investigation into a case. As the name suggests, it lays out the facts of the case. We ask our clients to review it with us to make sure that we have all the information correct. We also ask a series of questions to help us further develop the case and prepare for a potential trial.
4. Case Assessment: This document is the heart of everything we do for our clients. It updates the Fact Sheet, analyzes liability and damages, discusses how the case would look at trial, discusses settlement options, presents the current value of the case and makes recommendation on how to proceed. Many lawyers are afraid to tell a client what his or her case is worth. In our case assessment, we not only tell our clients what their cases are worth, we explain in detail how we determined that case value.
5. Suit Report: Prepared after filing suit, this document provides details on the nature of the lawsuit and the legal process. It pulls back the curtain on the often mysterious workings of the courts.
6. Deposition Guidelines: Delivered shortly before a client’s deposition, this document provides advice on how to prepare for the deposition and what to do during the deposition.
7. Defendant Medical Exam (DME) Guidelines: Defendants have the right to request a medical examination of anyone who claims to have suffered injuries. Our DME Guidelines explain what the exam is, how a client should prepare and what they should do during the exam.
8. Trial Report: Prepared as we approach the trial, this document provides an overview of how we will prosecute the case at trial and offers guidance for our clients to follow.
9. Case Closing Report: Prepared after we settle a case or win a verdict, it outlines the distribution of funds, explains the expenses spent on the case and provides a timeline on when the client will receive a check with the compensation we earned for him or her. We do everything we can to deliver the check as quickly as possible to our clients.

We have established standards for the delivery of each item on this list and track how well we are meeting that standard. We are in the midst of revising our website and when we finish that upgrade, we will publish our monthly performance with our Client Deliverables on that updated website. We hold ourselves accountable for fulfilling our commitments and want our clients to know how we are doing.

In addition to our nine standard deliverables, we also provide clients with the following, if appropriate:

1. 50-H Hearing Guidelines
2. 50-H Medical Exam Guidelines
3. No Fault Exam Guidelines
4. Workers Compensation Exam Guidelines
5. A Lien Report

If you have questions or comments about our deliverables, we’d love to hear from you. Please click here to send us a comment.

Responsiveness to Clients

We strive to be there for our clients. We answer the phones as quickly as possible and everyone is charged with answering the phone. We never want to make a client wait.

We have committed to responding to client inquiries as quickly as possible. The best outcome is to answer or resolve a client question or problem in one phone call. If not, we commit ourselves to resolving the issue as quickly as possible and in less than eight business hours.

Every client can speak to Carol at any time. If she is not available, Carol will return the call as soon as possible and absolutely within eight business hours of receiving the call.

We commit ourselves to being responsive to our clients and hold ourselves accountable for fulfilling that promise. We track our response time and will begin publishing our response times on our web site when we finish our website upgrade.

Great Customer Service

We want to do a great job for our clients and part of doing a great job involves performing great customer service. We have set up work flows and systems to help us deliver great customer service, but fulfilling that ambition depends on a commitment to our principles. We constantly assess our performance and ask how we can do better. We want to rank among the best in the world, not just with other law firms, but with all businesses.

I hope you have found this information helpful. If you have any comments or want to share your experiences with customer service – good or bad – please comment below. We’d love to hear from you.

Carol L. Schlitt
New York Personal Injury Attorney
www.SchlittLaw.com
1-800-660-1466
Carol@SchlittLaw.com
http://NewYorkLawThoughts.com

This material is intended for informational uses only. It is not meant as legal advice. To receive legal advice, you should consult an attorney. Remember, past results do not guarantee similar outcomes in the future.

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