โThatโs why we have lawyers. They study a language for three years, and they learn it, and itโs a language that if a normal person read it, theyโd have a stroke.โย
โย Lewis Black on reading your own mortgage documents, from his 2010 show โStark Raving Blackโ
Letโs face it: Lawyers donโt think, talk or write like regular people. Weโre trained not to. The systems we work in are bewildering. The language we speak is full of specialized terms. The documents we create are both written in our language and designed to work within the legal system, making them highly unfriendly to non-lawyers.
Regular people know this, and yet they come to lawyers every day (often unwillingly) for help with some of the most important issues in their lives. Many of them have little idea what to expect from this experience, except that whatever happens will probably be confusing and expensive.
Itโs little wonder, then, that clients are anxious when they walk through your office door. You canโt avoid it at the start of your relationship, but you can alleviate confusion and anxietyย if you do two things:
- First, regularly step into your clientโs shoes to view yourself, the work and the system from the clientโs perspective.
- Second, think of yourself as a translator or intermediary for your client within the system.
Here are two opportunities for you to put this idea into practice andย bridge the gap between the clientโs world and the lawyerโs world.
1. The Road Map
If the work you will be doing has a predictable course, you should explain it to the client in your initial meeting. But donโt stop there โย give it to him in a useable written format as well, so he has something to refer to as the matter progresses.
For example, a typical plaintiffโs personal injury case follows a pattern from investigation through mediation or trial, and the process is loaded with legal jargon โย โdemand letter,โ โdiscovery,โ โinterrogatoriesโ and so forth. The language and process may be routine for you, but baffling and discouraging to the client. The written road map you create for the client should lay out predictable steps, define terms clearly and give estimated times for completion.
Consider making a road mapย available on your website as well, for your current clients to use and your prospective clients to discover.
2. The Documents
Whenย youโre sending documents to your client for review, think about what those documents look like from her perspective. Are they accessible, or intimidating? If the latter, think about how you can make them more accessible to the client, then do that.
A funny, insightful, non-lawyer blogger I follow illustrated this clearly. She and her husband overcame their dread of creating an estate plan and met with a lawyer to discuss it. Although the initial meeting went well, the inch-high stack of will and trust drafts that followed proved unnerving. The lawyer sent an explanatory email with the documents, but the mere presence of those documents in the house caused stress โย the prospect of reviewing them was overwhelming.
Her husband came up with an elegant solution, she said. He โprinted everything out and stapled it by sections, and then cut up the lawyerโs explanatory email and put each piece of email with its appropriate section, so we could easily tackle it in smaller chunks.โ This made an โenormous difference,โ and they reviewed the first section quickly.
What if the lawyer had come up with this solution instead of leaving it to the clients to figure out? It would have decreased their stress, quickened the document turnaround, and been an altogether better experience.
Consider your own practice: How many times have you sent a stack of impenetrable documents and an explanatory letter to a client, without stopping to think about what they look like to someone who doesnโt do what you do every day? The client needs to review the documents โย how can you simplify that step for him?
Attempting to bridge the gap between theย clientโs world and the lawyerโs world requires a different kind of thinking, but itโs worth it in the long run. It can improve both communication and the clientโs experience with you. A client wonโt send friends, relatives or business associates to a lawyer if he thinks theyโll have a miserable experience. If he knows theyโll be taken care of, though, heโll send them, and heโll come back when he needs you again.
Itโs amazing what a change in perspective can bring.
Mary Taylor Lokensgardย is a recovering attorney with over 15 years of experience in private practice, including plaintiffโs personal injury litigation, estate planning and administration, and elder law. Sheโs now working for herself as an independent writer, and she tweetsย @marylokensgard.
Illustration ยฉiStockPhoto.com.