8 Tips on How to Handle Mistakes with Clients
By: Steve Grumm
I find this to be some pretty solid advice about how attorneys should handle mistakes that affect clients’ interests. It was posted over on Above the Law, a popular legal tabloid blog, by a fellow named Jay Shepard, who works – or worked, I’m not sure – in a small law firm practice for several years…
A teaser…tips 1 and 2…
1. Own the mistake.
When you realize you’ve made a mistake — or worse, when your client tells you that you’ve messed up — the first thing you need to do is get in front of it. You start by accepting the mistake, and accepting responsibility for it. (I’m not talking about a situation when your client thinks you’ve made a mistake but is wrong.) It’s not fun to do (none of this mistake stuff is), but you need to tell your client that you understand that you made the mistake, and that it’s your responsibility. Even if it’s not your fault.
When something happens that adversely affects your client, he or she isn’t going to feel better that it wasn’t really your fault. That sort of buck-passing usually makes the client more frustrated. If the print shop was late getting the copies of the closing documents to the other side, that may not have been your fault, but it was your responsibility. The client already knows this. It’s important that you show that you know it. “You’re right,” you say. “That should not have happened. That was my responsibility.”
2. Say “I’m sorry.”
Words matter. I’ve seen lawsuits filed and settlements unraveled because of a failure to apologize, even though the mere words don’t really change the situation. You need to say the words “I’m sorry.”
And not “I apologize.” No one talks like that in real life. “I apologize” is stilted and formal, and harder for someone to take seriously. “I’m sorry” is far more effective. Personally, I prefer “I’m so sorry.”
