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Law Office Staff
 Can Cause Claims

Acts, errors and omissions giving rise to claims are not limited to those committed by you as the attorney handling your client’s case, your partners, fellow shareholders or associates. Staff members can and do cause claims. This can put you at risk of liability to your client and even third parties. This includes secretaries, paralegals, law clerks and other employees who have responsibility which, if mishandled, can get you sued.

Today’s high stress in work and life mandate that you learn to recognize and watch for warning signs signaling troubled employees. The greater the stress, illness or impairment an employee suffers, the greater the likelihood that an employee will forget critical tasks such as mailing or delivering complaints and other pleadings that need to be timely filed, missing statutes of limitation, failing to docket events on your calendar, etc. Pay special attention to employees with:

Stress caused by: emotional problems, pending divorces, severely ill relatives;
Drug or alcohol abuse (learn to recognize symptoms);
Severe medical problems;
Psychiatric illnesses;
Financial stress.

Although all of the above conditions can also affect attorneys, the above conditions can cause employees to fail and forget to carry out important tasks. Because you depend on the employee, you may not know of the failure until the damage has been done (statute of limitations has expired without complaint being filed, witness was not subpoenaed, settlement statement incorrectly drafted and relied upon at closing) until it is too late. Periodically monitor the employee’s work. The greater the stress, illness or impairment, the closer and more frequent the monitoring needs to be. Is work stacking up on an employee’s desk? Is the employee placing unfinished work in drawers or file cabinets as though it were done? This indicates an employee who is unable to function.

Some conditions such as drug or alcohol abuse or financial stress may lead to acts of employee dishonesty. Audit an employee’s handling of money. It is a prudent business practice to purchase a blanket fidelity bond to cover all persons working in your law office in the event of embezzlement or other misuse of a client’s funds.

If you discover an employee who has failed to perform critical tasks, immediate action must be taken. Review open and closed files handled by the suspect employee. Verify that complaints have been timely filed and appeals timely perfected. Ascertain that discovery deadlines have been timely completed. Determine whether releases have been executed and returned, disbursements made, settlements collected and clients billed, etc. Make report to your malpractice insurer or fidelity bond provider as circumstances require.