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Extended Consultation Description
Mediation Service What Mediation is Collaborative Practice
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Why
I don’t Consult by Phone or Schedule Consultation Appointments for Less
than 2½ Hours
My practice has been intentionally designed to provide three different, mutually exclusive, services. When I’ve been retained for full-service representation in support of a mediation, I’ll work with my client by phone and will schedule office appointments whenever and for as long as necessary. When I am providing mediation services to a couple, sessions will be as long or as brief as circumstances dictate, and I will work by phone according t the terms agreed upon by me and the clients I’m working with. What follows applies only to clients with whom I’ve done one or more Extended Consultations (usually, an initial Consultation & Assessment and one or more Extended Follow-up sessions). The Extended consultations are done at half my customary billing rate: (1) To provide as many people as possible with legal services I believe necessary but would be otherwise unaffordable; (2) To provide a protocol that enables me to give legal advice within the factual context of the case. Working by telephone and the scheduling of relatively short sessions would defeat both of these objectives. (1) Continuing availability is the primary reason why conventional legal services cost at least twice the hourly rate I charge for the Extended Consultation. To follow a case on a continuing basis requires clerical support to manage files, records, billing, and telephone traffic. The overhead for most law offices is about 50% of the fees collected. The administrative cost of setting up a new case file, storing it for an indefinite period of time, and maintaining the list of potential conflicts of interest is at least $500 before any legal work is done on the case. In other words, it costs a firm more to mechanically create and maintain a file than I charge for a three-hour session. Only by limiting the services offered and the expense of providing them can I keep the cost so low. (2) Just as important as the economy of operation is adhering to the fundamental premise of the Extended Consultation, which is to provide advice within the context of the case. Because of the number of consultations I do and the way I do them, I give my best and full attention to the client and the matter at hand during the course of the consultation; this is the way I work best, and, I think, the way sound advice should be delivered. While I’m completely emerged in the case during the consultation, I remember very little of it by the end of the day, and almost nothing about it the next day. One of the reasons the follow-up consultations need to be long is to allow me whatever time it takes to get back into the case. I have no way to predict in advance how long it will take. At the start of a Follow-up Consultation I will review my notes from the previous meeting. I’ll study the charts made during that session if the client remembers to bring them. I’ll hear of the circumstances that have occasioned the visit, and then I’ll ask as many questions as necessary to bring together in my mind the present situation and the situation as I understood it during earlier meetings. I can count on being able to know, unequivocally, when I’m back into the case and have access to what I’ve been told in the past and can provide counsel and advice accordingly. Without this time and contact, it would be impossible to provide the professional service I’ve promised. . |
Copyright 2003 Brian H. Burke