Beware of the standard document
The advent of the desktop PC has considerably reduced the time that the legal profession spends on drafting standard documentation, such as formal letters of appointment and some legal documents. However, it does have its downfalls.
It is common practice for busy partners to ask their secretaries to prepare a standard client letter from an existing draft. When they are particularly busy, partners may sign the letter without digesting it properly because the contents, at first glance at least, seem familiar. This is when easily avoidable - and costly &150; mistakes could happen.
For instance, the secretary may need the partner to complete some of the more crucial detail that could be omitted in the final version if it is not checked thoroughly.
For example, an incorrect client or partner name from a previous draft may be included in a letter; irrelevant information may be contained simply because it was in an existing draft; divorce case correspondence could be sent to the spouse's address which could lead to a whole raft of problems.
The practice of using standard documentation can stretch to items such as a sale contract for a property, where the wrong address or even price could be left in. An oversight on this scale could leave a firm facing a major negligence claim.
However, there are steps that can be taken to ensure that the chances of these easily avoidable mistakes are minimised:
As a legal practitioner, you are delegating the task of drafting copy but not the responsibility of the task itself. You must assume that the quality of the final document remains your responsibility unless spelt out to the contrary.
While the 'find and replace' and 'cut and paste' functions on a PC are great tools, there is no substitute for taking time to read a document thoroughly. The benefits of doing so greatly outweigh the consequences of an easily avoidable negligence claim.
This column was prepared by AFP Consulting, a division of Alexander Forbes Risk Services UK
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