Lawyer Referral Service Membership Manual For Attorneys and Staff
Welcome to the Lawyer Referral Service (LRS)! The Lawyer Referral Service (LRS) is a non-profit referral service of the NH Bar Association. As an LRS panel member, you are providing an opportunity for the public to gain confidence in the legal profession while increasing your earnings potential at the same time Our staff is trained to help identify the caller s legal situation and make a referral to an attorney according to the area(s) of law practiced as well as geographic location. Depending on the nature of the caller s legal matter, LRS staff also offers referrals to community service programs that might better serve the caller. LRS Staff Contact Information Coordinator: Sheila Vermacy 603-715-3235 svermacy@nhbar.org Intake Specialist: Jacqueline Geddes 603-715-3236 jgeddes@nhbar.org 2 Pillsbury Street, Suite 300 Concord, NH 03301 603-229-0002 603-715-3295 Lrsreferral@nhbar.org Reducedfee@nhbar.org LRS Online LRS serves over 10,000 individuals each year throughout New Hampshire (and beyond). In addition to telephone referrals, LRS makes a considerable number of online referrals through the LRS website at www.nhlrs.org. We also reach out to potential clients through social media by maintaining a presence on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, LinkedIn and Craigslist. LRS is looking for guest bloggers. If you have a blog and would like to have your articles included on our website, please forward us a link with permission to repost your articles. LRS will give you credit and will provide a link to your website. Referrals You have chosen legal subject areas you wish to receive referrals in and certify that you are competent to handle. Referrals are made based on the client s legal issue and geographic location. As soon as referral is made to you, LRS will email a Referral Confirmation Form which will include the client s name, address and phone number, the legal subject matter, and oftentimes, a very brief description of the legal issue. If you prefer to have the 2
confirmations go to your assistant s email address or if you prefer to receive them by fax instead, please let us know. It is the client s responsibility to contact your office when a referral is provided. Not all callers follow through, however, and some panel members choose to initiate contact with the client. If you receive a phone call from a client, but did not receive an emailed or faxed confirmation report, it may be that the email or fax failed. Feel free to call LRS if you would like us to try to re-send the confirmation report, or if you have any questions regarding the referral. If for any reason you are unable to provide a consultation, please do not refer the caller to another attorney. Please refer the client back to LRS to be referred to another panel member. If more than one LRS panel member is employed by your firm, and the referred attorney will not be available within a reasonable amount of time, you may give the client the option to consult with one of the other LRS panel members at your firm, or direct the caller to call LRS back for another referral. If the caller chooses to consult with another LRS member at your firm, please let us know. After your initial conversation or after a pre-consult conflict check, if you find that for any reason a referred case is not one you can (or care to) take on, please inform the client and ask them to call LRS for another referral. Please do not refer the client to other attorneys who are not on the LRS panel, no matter how appropriate you believe they might be. LRS has many attorneys signed up in most areas, so it is very likely that we can make a match with another attorney. Incorrect Referrals Our staff tries to make the most appropriate referral possible based on the information the client gives us, but if we have incorrectly identified the legal issue please let us know so we can change the case type before making another referral. If you believe that a client does not have a meritorious case, please inform the client of the reasons you believe the case has no legal merit. Only telling a client you don t handle his/her legal matter creates problems for LRS when the client calls back and informs us that we referred the case incorrectly. Consultation Fees Clients will expect to receive up to a 30 minute consultation with the attorney they were referred to. While LRS no longer charges a referral fee, attorneys may charge (and retain) up to $25.00 for the initial thirty-minute consultation. Charging for the initial consultation is optional; please inform the client in advance. 3
Case Disposition Reports It is not necessary to report the status of each referral individually to LRS. Every two months your office will receive a case disposition report showing all referrals made to you for the previous two months, along with all other open referrals. Accurate and timely reporting is mandatory and crucial to this program. Case disposition codes are explained at the bottom of the report. If you cannot find a code that fits the disposition of a particular client s case, simply write a note somewhere on the report explaining what happened. The most important information is whether a consult was given, whether or not the case was accepted, and the amount of fees collected, if any. If no fees were collected, a zero must be written in the Net Collected Fees column. The report will not be considered complete if all columns are not filled out properly, and the report may be returned to you. If you need assistance, an LRS staff person will be happy to answer any questions. You may save time and postage by faxing your reports to 603-715-3295 or by emailing them to LRSreferral@nhbar.org. Annual Report In lieu of a November/December case disposition report, your office will be mailed an Annual Report in January that lists of all referrals made during that year. The report will include cases that have already been reported on, as well as the new November/December cases. This report is required because sometimes a client will return and hire a referred attorney after the attorney has closed out the file with our office. Please review the report and note any case statuses that might have changed, along with any additional fees that may have been collected. Referral Fees Effective January 1, 2017, referral fees of 10% of NET collected fees, on the total amount for all cases that generate legal fees beyond the initial $25 consultation fee, are due as the fees are collected. If the case does not progress past the initial consultation AND no more than $25 is collected, no fees are due LRS. Do not report the $25 consultation fee on your case disposition reports for referrals that did not become accepted cases. Include payment of percentage fees with the disposition reports, or as paid to you by the client. Professional Liability Insurance LRS panel members are required to carry liability insurance in the amount of $100,000/$300,000. Please send a copy of the declarations page to LRS at the time of your policy renewal. Failure to timely submit your current declarations page to LRS may result in suspension from referrals until the current page is received. 4
Attorney Leave If you are not going to be available for more than a couple of days, whether due to illness, vacation, or a full court schedule please let us know. LRS can put referrals on hold until you are able to meet with clients again. Practice Area Changes Attorneys may change practice areas at any time without having to fill out another application. Give us a call or send an email and we will be happy to make the changes for you. Client Surveys Every client that is referred to an attorney is sent a client satisfaction survey. If the client gives LRS permission, we will share these comments (both positive and negative) with the attorney. We will also include positive client comments on your attorney profile. Remember that a little patience and personal attention, including advice you feel you can responsibly give in a brief consultation, is often the best PR you can create. Even if the client doesn t retain you on the first call, they will say good things about you. They may return when their next legal issue arises, and may recommend you to friends and family. Successful LRS attorneys who retain cases and repeat customers are those who know that their time with the caller is an investment. The Reduced-Fee Program The Reduced-Fee Program provides legal services to people who cannot afford an attorneys usual rate. These are often the working poor, who earn too much to qualify for free legal representation. Participation in this program is voluntary. You do not have to accept referrals through the Reduced-Fee Program to receive referrals through the Lawyer Referral Service s full-fee program. Many clients receiving referrals through the Reduced-Fee Program have expressed gratitude that this service exists. Callers are told that attorneys with the Reduced-Fee program charge up to $80 per hour, and will require a retainer in most cases. It is recommended that the retainer not exceed $1200.00, but the attorney sets the retainer based upon the complexity of the case. Intake staff only conducts a brief financial screening over the phone to determine eligibility for a referral, and does not verify income. We will include a summary of the client s reported income information on the attorney confirmation report, along with the current eligibility guidelines. However, we strongly recommend that you assess the client s ability to pay legal fees before agreeing to a reduced rate. You may want to ask the client to complete the 5
financial worksheet on the back of his/her confirmation form and bring it to the first appointment. Please give LRS staff a call if you are ever unsure about a client s eligibility for a reduced rate. LRS charges an application fee of $25 for the Reduced-Fee program which is due at the time of the referral. This fee helps fund the program. Panel members are not responsible for collecting this fee. Panel members are not expected to provide a free consultation for Reduced- Fee clients. Fees may not exceed $80 per hour. Please inform the client if there will be a consultation fee in advance of the initial meeting. Reduced-Fee panel members are not assigned cases and are not obligated to take cases they are not comfortable taking. Thank you again for participating in the LRS programs. We always enjoy meeting Panel Members, so if you are at the Bar Center please don t hesitate to ask at the front desk for Sheila or Jackie. We welcome your feedback about your ideas for improving the programs and it would be also a good opportunity to go over any questions that may come up as cases develop. 6