E-Mail Screens
Overview
According to one leading malpractice insurer, the "greatest risk to lawyers and law firms with an Internet presence is that they may not always know who their clients are" while specifically raising attorney websites which "allow prospective clients to contact lawyers through email without any screening." e-Lawyering.com's E-Mail Screens require prospective clients and others to commit to certain acknowledgements prior to delivering e-mail to attorneys via your firm's websites.
1. Duties to Prospective Clients.
ABA Model Rule 1.18 sets forth certain duties an attorney owes to a prospective client, especially when a prospective client shares confidential information with the attorney. Imagine a local physician, concerned about the possibility of an imminent malpractice lawsuit, searches the Internet and finds a nearby attorney specializing in plaintiff-side medical malpractice. Seeking to ease his mind, the physician uses the attorney’s website to send an e-mail sharing the details of the incident at hand, including information the physician described as confidential, and stating that he will pay the attorney his standard billable rate to review the facts and offer his opinion regarding the merits of his patient’s potential lawsuit. Even assuming the attorney declined the physician’s project, if the physician’s injured patient later contacted the same attorney seeking to file an action against the physician, would the attorney have a conflict taking the patient’s case?
2. Unintended Client Engagements.
Considering that business generation represents the primary objective of most websites, a prospective client might reasonably presume your law firm's website as an invitation to become a client of your firm. When the creation of an attorney-client relationship relies heavily on what the client reasonably believes, should it make attorneys nervous that prospective clients could send e-mails requesting representation on matters with looming statute of limitations or regulatory filing deadlines? Should an attorney feel comfortable that a court or disciplinary board will rule in the attorney's favor based solely on a discrete disclaimer buried on the website?
Potential e-mail pitfalls should give pause to attorneys with a website, especially when at least one major malpractice insurance carrier labels unintended client engagements as "the greatest risk facing attorneys with an internet presence." With e-Lawyering.com's E-Mail Screens, our clients' websites enable law firm website visitors to contact or e-mail a lawyer or law firm, while minimizing the possibility that the sender's correspondence will adversely affect the attorney's practice.
How E-Mail Screens Work:
When a prospective client or other website visitor clicks a link to an attorney’s e-mail or “Contact Us” submission page on your law firm’s website, rather than seeing an unfettered e-mail box or fillable Contact Us page, the sender is transferred to a new strategic webpage (indistinguishable from other pages on your website) with fillable "From" and "Message" spaces.
The new webpage allows prospective clients to send messages to the lawyer or law firm, but first requires the sender to check a box acknowledging and agreeing that sending the message does not create an attorney-client relationship. The sender will also be required to acknowledge that he or she should not send any confidential information, and to further agree that the law firm will not have any obligation to maintain the confidentiality of the information being sent. You can use e-Lawyering.com’s standard acknowledgement language, or customize the message during the initial program set-up to match your professional discretion.
Immediately after the sender submits the message, the attorney or law firm receives the message just like they would receive any other e-mail, but the message is delivered complete with the client’s acknowledgement. The sender also receives a copy of the sent message.
Starting at $19/month. E-Mail Screens are also a standard feature for e-Lawyering.com’s website hosting clients.
Click here for more information, or to request a demo.