Playbook, law firm
Cancelling a solicitor, and what the retainer says about it
The word cancel does a lot of work in this trade. It can mean dropping an appointment, which costs nothing much, or it can mean ending a retainer half way through a matter, which is a contractual step with consequences on both sides. Between those sits the client who has changed their mind before anything started and assumes that means there is nothing to pay. The material has to tell those three apart before it says a word about any of them.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for cancellations holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- A retainer is a contract set out in the client care letter, so ending it is governed by a document the client already has, and the terms differ between firms rather than following a general rule.
- Work already done remains chargeable whether or not the matter reaches its end, which is the part clients least expect and the reason this question so often turns into a costs argument.
- Where proceedings have been issued, a firm cannot simply stop: coming off the record is a step at court with its own timing, so the client's decision and the firm's position are not the same event.
- A firm may be entitled to hold papers until its bill is met, so a client moving to another firm may find the file does not move with them, and that is a right under the retainer rather than an act of obstruction.
How it arrives
- i want to stop using you and go to another firm
- how do i cancel before you have started anything
- can you send my file to my new solicitor
- do i still have to pay if i change my mind now
- how do i get you taken off the record at court
- i signed the client care letter can i back out
What has to be indexed for this to work
| The termination clauses of your client care letter | How a client ends the retainer, how the firm may, what notice either side gives and what falls due on termination. Clients received this at the start and rarely reread it, so index the operative wording rather than a paraphrase of it. |
|---|---|
| What happens to the file when a client transfers | How the file is transferred, what is copied, what is charged for it, and the circumstances in which papers are held pending payment. Write the last part plainly, because discovering it at the point of leaving is what escalates these. |
| Your position where proceedings have been issued | That coming off the record is a court step, roughly what it involves and how long it takes. A client who thinks they can end things by sending an email is going to be surprised by a hearing date that still has the firm's name on it. |
| Cancelling an appointment, kept separate | The route and the notice for dropping a meeting, written on its own page. If it lives alongside the retainer material the assistant will answer a simple appointment question with a paragraph about termination, which reads alarmingly. |
The reply
It depends which of two things you mean. Dropping an appointment is straightforward and the route is on our contact page. Ending your instructions is different: it is governed by the client care letter you signed, which sets out the notice and what becomes payable, and work already carried out remains chargeable [1]. If proceedings have been issued, we also have to come off the record at court, which is a separate step [2]. I cannot see your matter or act on this here, so leave me your name, an email and the matter reference and your fee earner will deal with it.
It forks in the first sentence because answering the wrong branch is the main failure in this pair. Naming the client care letter puts the client in front of a document they already hold rather than in front of a policy they have to take on trust. The chargeable point is stated early and without apology, since a client who hears it later hears it as a penalty for leaving.
Where it stops
The trigger. The visitor says they want to end their instructions, names the firm they are moving to, or asks what they will owe if they stop now.
Ending instructions is dealt with by your fee earner and by the terms of your client care letter, not here, and I cannot see anything about your matter. Leave your name, an email and the matter reference and the team will pick it up today.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- Never say a client owes nothing if they stop now, because what is chargeable depends on the retainer and on work the assistant cannot see.
- Never say the file will be sent on, or sent free of charge, when the retainer may entitle the firm to hold papers.
- Never confirm that instructions have been ended, since nothing typed here reaches the fee earner or the file.
- Never tell somebody in live proceedings that they can simply stop, when the firm remains on the record until a court step is taken.
Questions
- Is it risky to publish the part about holding papers?
- It is riskier to leave it out. A client who reads it in the retainer and again on the site is dealing with a known term. A client who meets it for the first time while trying to move firms treats it as retaliation, and that version arrives at your complaints procedure.
- Can it tell a client what they would owe if they stopped today?
- No. That is a figure derived from unbilled time on a file it cannot open, and an estimate given here would be quoted back as a promise. It explains that work to date remains chargeable and routes the question to the fee earner.
- Most of these are just people cancelling a meeting. Does that get lost?
- Only if the two live in one document. Keep the appointment route on its own page in ordinary language and the citations will show you which one the assistant answered from, which is the fastest way to catch it answering the heavy question to a light one.
Keep reading
- Everything for a law firmFee structures, consultation terms and onboarding checks are answerable. Anything applied to a caller's own facts is legal advice.
- Handling cancellations in generalCancellation content is hard to find on purpose. What it costs to answer plainly, how notice periods work, and what happens to data on the way out.
- Three different requests that all arrive as can I have my money backA balance in the client account is the client's own money returning. An abortive fee is not. A disputed bill is a third thing entirely.
- The questionnaire behind a corporate client's instructionPanel onboarding, outside counsel guidelines and data terms come from a client's buyers, not from consumers, and none can be agreed in a chat.
- The firm's insurance and the client's are unrelated thingsProfessional indemnity cover belongs to the firm. Legal expenses cover on a caller's own policy may fund the matter. Not the same question.
Try it on your own material
Upload a document or point it at your site, paste one line of HTML, then ask it something only your business could answer.