Dates with disaster?


These days electronic diary systems provide fee-earners with easy access to information about deadlines. With this in mind, it is surprising that missed time limits still feature strongly as a cause of professional indemnity claims and notifications.


The idea of introducing an electronic diary system across a firm is an excellent means of bringing discipline to an area of practice that has been typified in the past by every fee-earner using a different system and paper diaries abounding. So why is it that time limits are still missed?


The answer lies not in the system, but in the discipline a firm's fee-earners apply to using it properly.


It is no surprise that the failings are nearly always of human origin. Take the more mature partner who, despite the firm having adopted an electronic diary system, insists on keeping a paper diary ('because it's the way I've always worked'). Unfortunately, in such a case the senior partner simply has to get tough and insist on compliance to systems, no matter how senior the Luddite colleague may be.


The real problem is that if the information fed into the electronic diary system is inaccurate it will be utterly ineffective.


Here are a few pointers that will help firms to keep well within time limits:


  • Do not leave issues to the last minute. If a time limit in the diary arrives and the relevant submission is not ready, the risks of filing late or inaccurately rise significantly. Try to build in a few days' grace or create a system that warns fee-earners a week or so before a looming deadline;



  • Make sure that fee-earners enter correct deadlines. There are plenty of cases, straightforward on the face of it, that have different limitation periods to the norm - for example, proceedings in foreign jurisdictions;



  • Check dates and times are entered correctly. If it is the role of support staff to enter diary details, check that it is done accurately. It is all too easy to enter the wrong month or even year in long-standing cases;



  • Double-check diary calculations. Adding a day is an easy mistake to make, but it can make the difference between meeting and missing a deadline.



    • Electronic diary systems can be a real boon to firms, helping to ensure that deadlines are met on time. However, as with all systems, take the time to ensure that fee-earners are taking responsibility for using the system properly and that all entries are double checked.


    This column was prepared by AFP Consulting, a Division of Alexander Forbes Risk Services UK