The Gazette 1972

Getting business and doing it. Many young solicitors starting practice concentrate on making contacts and getting new business. That indeed is laudable and neccssary. It is however of equal and even greater importance to complete work already undertaken with efficiency. We have all heard of the whips and scorns of time, the laws dealys, the insolence of office and the spurns which patient merit of the unworthy takes. The delays of the law are often unjustly attributed to our profession. That delays do exist cannot be denied often due to Government Departments and failure to reform the law and legal procedures and other causes outside our control. Sometimes I am afraid we are remiss ourselves in failing to organise our offices properly and to learn and apply the principles which are being adopted in business concerns many of which are our clients and look to us for guidance. It is a strange curcumstance that solicitors who are looked up to as the guides and mentors of their clients in matters not only of law but of worldly wisdom so often neglect the purely business aspect of their own practices. It must be remembered that the efficiencv and speed with which a solicitor works depends not only on him- self and his staff but al:o on the co-operation which he receives from other practitioners and from Government Departments and other correspondents. Among the basic factors to be considered are control of office papers, an adequate accounting system, valuation of office time and co-ojieration with other practitioners. Office papers 1'he control of office papers depends on the establish- ment of a simple and readily accessible filing system so that all documents which are required in connection with a particular case can be kept together in proper order and obtained without delay when required. Filing systems are various and every one has his own particular ideas and prejudices. Furthermore most individuals are either unable or unwilling to change a system already in operation. The main thing is to have a system and to operate it to the limit of its efficient use. For those who are about to instal a filing system or who find it possible to change a system already in operation I suggest that reference numbers combined with a double entry card index will l>e found to be the simplest and most efficient. Files in an office are of no use whatever unless the fee earner by which I mean the principal or other person dealing with a case or someone under his direction can put his hand on the file at a moment's notice and furthermore that all the relevant docu- ments are on the file in the proper order.

Card indexes and numerical references Each new case that justifies opening a file should be given a number. Kile numbers should be in a consecu- tive series. Two identical cards are prepared for cacli case and two card index Iroxes provided. Each card shows the name of the client, the title of the case, the name of the fee earner in charge and the case reference number. This is a double entry card index system with two identical sets of cards. The cards are stacked numerically in one box and alphabetically in the other so that the reference number of a particular case file can be traced from the alphabetical box and the name of a client in a matter of which the file number is known can be traced from the numerical box. Files themselves are kept in strict numerical order usually in steel filing cabinets in a filing room or space. All the cards of each client are stacked together in the alphabetical box so that the fee earner knows all the cases in hands for tiiat client at any particular time. This is better than keeping all the files together because individual files, unlike individual cards, grow in size and cards are easily handled. Each new case file is added according to its number at the end of the line. The place of each file can be ascertained immediately from its number on the card. It is absolutely essential that the reference number, the title of the case, the date and name of the person originating each letter, attendance or memorandum should appear on the document. Removal of dead files As cases are completed and billed out to the client the relevant cards are transferred to a dead index. At the same time the dead files are stacked away in card- board boxes in numerical order awaiting final disposal or destruction. The advantage of litis system is that any given time all the cards relating to current cases are stacked together in the live card index and the principal or partner in the firm should be assigned the duty of periodically examining the live card index to ascertain how cases arc moving. The advantage of a card index which can be used as a ready reference for this purpose need hardly be stressed. There are many other aspects of office management including accounting systems, túne-costing and proper use of your own and staff time. These could well be made the subject of special talks by experts and I hope that articles about them will be published from time to time in the Gazette . I have concentrated chiefly on the filing system because I believe it is basic in any well organised office. You can't carry the facts in your head, if they can't be found readily on the file they are lost for ever.

Legal Charges in Sweden Members of the Society were instructed by a manu- facturing firm to collect a debt in Sweden. They in- structed lawyers in Stockholm to write to the debtor threatening proceedings. This was done without any result and in Januaiy 1971 the Irish solicitors received an account from the Swedish lawyers for a total of 200 kroner (£18.42). Our members sent a remittance for this amount and asked that one further letter be written as nothing had been paid. They subsequently received a further account for another 200 kroner which

they regarded as excessive. On the advice of the Society the matter was referred to the Secretary of the Swedish Bar Association. The Society has since been informed that the Swedish lawyers agreed to reducc their charges by 50% The amount of the claim was £199 and the total charges which apparently involved writing two letters amounted to £27.63. It would appear that legal charges for debt collecting work are much higher in Sweden than in this country. 208