What do I tell WC patients whose #1 complaint is "my attorney doesn't return my calls."

Same reason customer service at every story you go to isn't great--poor training, lack of concern, priorities elsewhere, plus a client expectation that exceeds the case value . Many clients want 24/7 support an on-call attorney to answer their every concern, question, comment, and observation about how the case should be handled--frequently for events that are three or four months downstream. Most clients do not pay for premium 24 hour real-time support, but they sure want it. Those in your practice likely had expectations that exceeded their situation--those expectations were not properly handled by the attorney at inception. BTW, number one complaint to bar associations is the same.

In my experience, the vast majority of lawyers keep in touch regularly with their clients. Aside from being legally required to do so, it just makes excellent business sense. I would tell your patients to keep a record of their attempts to reach their lawyer and make an appointment to meet face-to-face with him/her. Then, during that meeting discuss the lack of communication. No one wants to be substituted for lack of communication or worse, receive a bar complaint. Sometimes the attorney doesn't know that the client is dissatisfied so I do not recommend filing a bar complaint as it may be premature or unwarranted. As the doctor, a call from you will definitely be patched in directly to the attorney so you may consider placing a courtesy call to the law firm to get their attention. However, having said that, lack of communication with our clients is the number one complaint that the state bar fields from angry clients: Rules of Professional Conduct Rule 3-500 Communication. "A member shall keep a client reasonably informed about significant developments relating to the employment or representation, including promptly complying with reasonable requests for information and copies of significant documents when necessary to keep the client so informed." "Rule 3-500 is not intended to change a member's duties to his or her clients. It is intended to make clear that, while a client must be informed of significant developments in the matter, a member will not be disciplined for failing to communicate insignificant or irrelevant information. (See Bus. & Prof. Code, §6068, subd. (m).)" Should the attorney outright refuse to keep the client informed, the client's first remedy should be, in my opinion, to substitute attorneys. Best to you, Ricardo Antonio Perez. PEREZ LAW CORP, PC. 822 N. Euclid Avenue Ontario, California 91762 909-983-2235 Telephone 626-353-9734 Cellular www.perezlawcorp.com http://Facebook.com/perezlawcorp

I handled limited workers’ compensation for members of a bus drivers union my first year of practice. When my association with the union ended, I vowed never to handle another workers’ compensation case again, even if there was a good 3rd party claim. The reason: injured workers have nothing better to do than stress over their injuries and ruminate about their case. It is made worse by the financial stress of low temporary disability payments. The fees available do not justify the effort required, especially considering the many calls from injured workers inquiring about their case when there is nothing new to report. What do you tell injured workers? Tell them only to call when absolutely necessary. Suggest, if they have something to report or a question to ask and there is enough time, they report or ask the question in a short, concise letter or email. I would also tell them not to expect a return call from the attorney – expect a call back from the assistant assigned to the case. Better still: advise them to ask to speak to the assistant assigned to the case, not the attorney, in the first instance.

Claimant-side work comp legal practices are by necessity high-volume business operations. The fees don't allow a different more customized approach. In my view, and this is a contrarian position, I know, your services would be more effectively directed at shaping the client's expectations for the legal services at the beginning of the claim. Clients assume that the WC law firm or attorney is their lawyer as defined by the same model or vision of advocacy and personal service that has been gleaned from lawyer shows on TV. This is not the case anywhere in the profession anymore and most especially in work comp practices which for most clients are service providers for expert processing of disputed claims. There is a lot to disapprove of in the present state of legal practice (in virtually every practice area). Efforts to address systemic problems that do not reach the economic grounds and origins of specific unsatisfying practices are just windmill-tilting, IMHO.

I agree with Ms McCall completely. As you are aware some clients are very hands off and some are more demanding. I tell my clients to use email as much as possible because I can respond more quickly than if they try calling when I am out. I have a fairly heavy schedule of hearings so this works best. My paralegal is very good at trying to answer questions and to determine the difference between a question that needs her help (my check was late) to one that needs my counsel. Given your position I suggest that you tell the client to try to understand that the atty has a staff for assistance with these issues and to make use of the best means available to keep in touch, whether that is email or through the paralegal. If those two methods are not successful then they can decide if this atty is a good fit for them.

This isn't really a legal question, but regardless, its important to note, that law offices are like restuarants, if there empty /there's no wait time, there's probably a reason, as in its a BAD restaurant. If your patients need to wait a day or so for their lawyer to return their call, its probably because the lawyer is at court, in a deposition, etc (put another way, is busy because he's successful).

I respond rapidly to calls and emails from clients. At my first job 39 years ago, there was a rule that all calls and correspondence were responded to in 24-48 hours. It became a habit to do it fast, even if all I could say is I am inquiring into the problem and will let them know shortly. You can tell your patients that they can try to find a lawyer who does respond promptly. The inguiry should focus on the problem and be specific. Calls such as "I can't get my meds" are annoying whereas a call or email identifying the prescription, pharmacy with contact number, and days attempted to fill rx are helpful. The clearer the question, the more likely worker will get fast action.

Tell them to email their attorney directly. Office staff should be forthcoming with this email address. Claims adjusters respond much better to emails as well.

Your concern has obviously touched a nerve as shown by the number of responses you've received. All the responses have said essentially the same thing. WC lawyers are far to overworked. The system is a creature of legislation and the insurance industry has great weight in that forum (look at the $$ donated to political campaigns). the insurance industry doesn't want injured workers to have lawyers so they legislated a limit on fees of 15%. Do you drop everything for the big 15% off sale at Nordstrom or wherever you shop? Of course not. That's chump change. You're waiting for the big 35-65% off sale. What is chump change at Nordy's is also chump change in the legal business. that's why we have to handle so many cases to make a living. Why don't we handle more staff? Not on a 15% fee. We can't. Since some clients know that they are only going to be charged 15% whether they call once a year or once a day, they abuse us. The general rule is that 10% of our clients take up 90% of our time. After a while, those clients are less likely to get call backs. As this system becomes more adversarial, I spend more and more time in court. As an example, this week, my calendar shows: 15 client appointments, 8 court conferences, 2 court trials, 1 client deposition, 1 doctor deposition and 2 continuing education classes. That's all time where I'm not taking or returning calls. I also get about 50-80 pieces of mail per day. Some are under time deadlines and require immediate action Well....I could keep going but I gotta go now and return a few calls (it's 5:30 and I'm just starting to return calls for the day).

I have found that email is the most efficient method of communication between my clients and myself. I can answer an email when I get time (and often do so late at night) and give them a clear written answer that hopefully will be useful. They can also refer back to it if they need to review it. I have found that telephone communications with clients are a sub-optimal means of communication many times, because sometimes clients often "do not hear what I am telling them." In addition, an email can be answered in less time than a phone call usually takes, so it is more efficient in that regard as well. I agree with my colleagues that client expectations are often way out of line, and quite frankly, it takes a lot of time to redirect those expectations sometimes because they come into the situation with grossly inflated and patently erroneous ideas about what their case is worth. And I know from experience that some of those clients who are complaining that they are not getting a call back are likely to be the same people who call and ask the same question repeatedly (they never write down the answer, apparently) and who ignore us when we say to them, "Workers comp moves very slowly. We will contact you whenever there is a new development to report, or when we need information from you. If you don't hear from us for a few weeks, don't worry. Nothing happens quickly in work comp." Some clients need what we lawyers refer to as "hand holding" and quite frankly, none of us have the time to do that. But those unusually needy clients may well constitute the bulk of the client population that is complaining about unreturned calls. I can unequivocally say that failure to return a call within the arbitrary deadline set by the client is not due to the lawyer not caring, but more likely due to the lawyer simply not having time to return the call.