For the Public

Common Concerns

Quality of Service

Chapter II of the Code  of Professional Conduct confirms that the lawyer owes the client a duty to be competent to perform any legal services undertaken on the client's behalf.  The lawyer should be conscientious, diligent and efficient in the provision of services to the client. The client is entitled to assume that the lawyer has the ability and capacity to deal adequately with any legal matters undertaken on the client's behalf.

The Code sets out an illustrative but not exhaustive list of examples where the lawyer's conduct does not meet the quality of service required by the Rule:

(a) failure to keep the client reasonably informed;

(b) failure to answer reasonable requests from the client for information;

(c) unexplained failure to respond to the client's telephone calls;

(d) failure to keep appointments with clients without explanation or apology;

(e) informing the client that something will happen or that some step will be taken by a certain date, then letting the date pass without follow-up information or explanation;

(f) failure to answer within a reasonable time a communication that requires a reply;

(g) doing the work in hand but doing it so belatedly that its value to the client is diminished or lost;

(h) slipshod work, such as mistakes or omissions in statements or documents prepared on behalf of the client;

(i) failure to maintain office staff and facilities adequate to the lawyer's practice;

(j) failure to inform the client of proposals of settlement, or to explain them properly;

(k) withholding information from the client or misleading the client about the position of a matter in order to cover up the fact of neglect or mistakes;

(l) failure to make a prompt and complete report when the work is finished or, if a final report cannot be made, failure to make an interim report where one might reasonably be expected;

(m) self-induced disability, for example from the use of intoxicants or drugs, which interferes with or prejudices the lawyer's services to the client;

(n) failure to maintain an adequate limitation reminder or tickler system to ensure an effective follow-up procedure with respect to the lawyer's files.

 
See also

Negligence