Attorneys and Responding to Emails

In this post, I explore an ethical controversy that pertains to communication in the legal world. In 2018, email communication has taken over and pushed aside sending letters and faxing. Emailing is the one fastest ways to get in contact with each other besides text messaging and Facetime. In the legal world, emailing is the fastest way to keep in contact with clients. But, creating the perfect email is essential and many attorneys do not take the time to critique the correct email for their clients.

When you're an attorney, conducting an email should be as professional as a written letter to your client. Spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar always apply and you, of course, proofread! You should make use of the subject line and put the subject as the topic you are addressing to your client, so they know exactly what the email is going to be about before opening up the actual email. This gives clients a heads up for what they are about to read. When an email contains confidential information, an attorney may consider sending an email attached with a PDF file that contains the documents that allow the clients to save the PDF file.

A way for an attorney to avoid an "oh no!" moment is to never respond to a client in an "in the moment" type of way. When I say an "in the moment" type of response, I am saying to never respond back to clients when you are angry, upset, or stressed out. Many attorneys make the mistake of responding back to clients emails when they are in a hurry and not thinking as clearly as they normally should. Responding back to a clients email with a "in the moment" attitude to cause you to lose your current client and even result of them leaving a bad review of your law firm of a mistake that could have been easily avoided if you would have replied at a later time where emotions would have done all the talking.

Attorneys often forget to address to clients the risk of emailing legal documents to each other because the risk of a 3rd party can gain access. This can put the attorney's law firm in jeopardy. The attorney should always make it clear to their clients to avoid using a work computer, a work email, and avoid allowing anyone else to access their email account due to confidential information being linked to the email.

Many people hate emails, text messaging, and Facetiming. People still like face to face interaction, or appreciate and like to receive letters to keep a hard copy for their own sake. Because our world has turned to depend so much on technology, I believe using email to communicate with clients is one of the most basic forms of technology and should not be an issue. Emailing is fast and easy to make look formal if you proofread and check your sentences structure, and so on. Yes, there are many pros and cons through sending emails to clients, but it is the quickest and most effective way to get in contact. While emailing clients, your expected to get fast responses and it is more formal to receive an email from your attorney than a text message. Important documents can be sent through an email in a timely manner, rather than driving across town to obtain them and emails can be kept as records with dates and times.