|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||
| home | join | contact | cle | sections | calendar | search | updated: January 2, 2008 | |
|||||||||||
| Boston Bar Association | |
|
|
|
|||||||||
| lawyer referral service > faq's | |
||||||||||||
LRS FAQs Q1. Why does a referral continue to appear on my Monthly Report even after I have reported to the LRS that the status of the matter is "A" ("No Contact")? A1. Research in the field of lawyer referral systems has shown that it can take the average caller up to three full months to call you after the LRS has made a referral (this assumes, of course, that the caller declined to let LRS connect him/her directly to your office at the time of the initial call). So, for example, if today were August 15th, only referrals encoded with the letter "A" and made prior to May 1st would be deleted from future Monthly Reports, since they would then be more than three full months old. Then, in September, referrals encoded with the letter "A" and made prior to June 1st would be deleted from future Monthly Reports; and so on. Thus, our goal is to keep the referral on your Monthly Report for three full months during which, statistics tell us, it is reasonable still to expect the caller to contact your office seeking representation. Q2. May I initiate contact with a referred client? A2. That is not permitted. Pursuant to DR 2-103 [§1200.8] Solicitation and Recommendation of Professional Employment, (A.), "A lawyer shall not solicit professional employment from a prospective client: 1. By in-person or telephone contact, except that a lawyer may solicit professional employment from a close friend, relative, former client or current client...." Q3. If I discover an old Monthly Report in my file, should I complete it and send it to the LRS? A3. No, thank you. Our software automatically designs your most recent Monthly Report to contain the only matters requiring your attention. Q4. Why do I have to return my Monthly Report within two weeks of receipt? A4. The principal mission of the LAWYER REFERRAL SERVICE is to provide a caller with a referral to an appropriate attorney. Part of that mission also involves facilitating contact between the caller and you. One of the ways that we accomplish this is with a special feature of our telephone system that enables us to connect the caller directly to your office at the time the referral is made. Another technique we use to establish a dialogue between you and the caller is for the LRS to telephone callers shortly after they receive a referral, so as to reinforce the importance of their establishing an attorney-client relationship with you. The sooner we receive your most recent Monthly Report, the sooner we can determine which callers to contact, and the greater our success in attaining our goal. |