Profile of Legal Malpractice Claims
LCFE can help you assess your needs in order to stay compliant with your Insurance
Company's requirements.
In "Profile of Legal Malpractice Claims", the American Bar Association found that
calendar/deadline-related errors are the leading cause of legal malpractice claims: 16.63 percent of
those malpractice claims were due to the firm not knowing or not properly responding to the court
calendar; 7.09 percent of malpractice claims were for failure to know/ascertain a deadline; 5.19
percent of malpractice claims were for failure to calendar properly; and 4.35 percent were for failure to
react to the calendar. In addition, the ABA Study states that the smaller the firm, the greater the
likelihood of being sued for malpractice.
Unless they are managed carefully, using proven technologies and best practices, court
calendars are extremely prone to error. Unfortunately, judges can be unforgiving to law firms that miss a
filing deadline or court date, and many will toss out cases if documents or other court-related information
is late. In fact, weaknesses in the court calendaring system represent the largest vulnerability most law
firms have, particularly when it comes to malpractice lawsuits. Both large and small firms often struggle
with the calendaring process.
Fortunately, with the right technology and best practices, firms can significantly reduce the time they
spend maintaining the court calendar, along with the risks they face from potential errors that may bring
malpractice suits. This allows firms to focus more on helping their clients through the practice of law, not
the court calendar. Technology is now available that can make their job much more efficient and less
error prone. With the advent of legal-specific court date calculation and rules-based calendaring
technologies, firms of all sizes and budgets can tap into resources that can assist with the calendaring
process, improve efficiencies and minimize the risk of missing a deadline that could eventually lead to a
malpractice lawsuit.
Before implementing any new methods or calendar systems, it is important to understand and evaluate
what types of calendars each attorney is using. At smaller firms, or those with lawyers adverse to new
technology, the old-fashioned paper calendar may still be in use. A paper calendar may offer certain
appeal because it requires no training, is inexpensive and easy to view at a glance. Nevertheless, paper
calendars also contain numerous limitations. Unless the firm has a solo practitioner, someone must be
constantly revising old dates and inputting new ones.
As a legal department consulting is still a relatively new field, we invite you to speak to
us to gain a better understanding of how we have helped the legal departments of
Fortune 500 companies improve their performance, and to ask us any questions that
would help you feel confident that our services are beneficial to you and/or your law firm.