Beware the pitfalls of using texting as a means of communication with clients. A series of texts can be easily lost forever, through switching either your network provider (e.g. Bell to Rogers) or type of phone (e.g. iPhone to Samsung), through accidental manual deletion, by having your phone hacked, or losing your phone altogether. Also, if you become at all distracted during the quick convenience of sending and receiving important texts, you could be glossing over crucial details and instructions between you and your client. Texting, by its very nature, may lack the specificity needed for certain instructions, matters and advice. More so if acronyms are used.
Protect yourself. Keep a trackable record of all exchanges using screenshots and saving/printing all text exchanges with clients. Be sure to regularly back up all of your data to the cloud.
Or reduce this risk altogether, and avoid using texts to communicate with clients and use email, in-person and/or telephone conversations, and letters.
- Law Office Management Professional Standard #2: Client Service
LIANS offers the following sample forms on our site (all can be highlighted, copied, pasted and edited). There is no one way to document your file, so feel free to use one of these forms or modify to create your own: