Complaints | Delay in reporting to a client

You are instructed by a lender who wishes to bring a claim against a firm of chartered surveyors (the 'defendant') who they allege overvalued a commercial property resulting in them incurring a loss. This client is a fairly new client of the firm and one which the firm is keen to obtain repeat business from. Having completed an investigation of the matter, you instruct an expert to provide his view. On the basis of this report you commence the pre-action protocol against the defendant.

You receive a response requesting your expert's report in order for the claim to be properly investigated. You provide it on a without prejudice basis in the interests of moving the claim forwards and attempting to resolve matters in dispute. Following receipt of the same, the defendant's solicitors inform you that they consider the claim to be more complex than previously thought and they state the reasons for this, and as such will require further time for their expert to provide a report and properly to investigate the claim. You are a busy on other matters and suddenly, two months later, get a call from your client wondering why they have not heard from you.

First, you must apologise. Regular client reporting and understanding your client's requirements are key to maintaining a good relationship. You should then inform the client of the defendant's view that the case is more complex than your initial appraisal which has resulted in the delay, and your views on the same. You should inform them that you will provide a more detailed report as soon as possible. You may consider waiving or reducing the charge for this as a goodwill gesture.

Following your analysis, you should consider updating the costs budget for your client as you may need to take account of, for example, further expert involvement to reflect the complexity. Although costs budgets are not required by the court until seven days before the case management conference (CMC) it is good practice to keep a very close eye on costs generally, given the court's more rigorous approach to costs proportionality and the underlying professional and regulatory responsibilities to keep client informed on costs. Further, the potential costs involved will clearly inform your client's commercial decision on how to proceed particularly where possible recovery/losses are minimal so that proportionality becomes an issue, and you may wish to advise them on this.

You should consider internal procedures on client reporting. You may wish to put in place a policy to do monthly updates to clients to ensure that this does not happen again. You might ask your IT department to provide diary reminders on each case file for the same to ensure the policy is followed. Once new procedures have been agreed, you should explain to the client the improvements put in place as a result of the situation and your firm's commitment to continual improvement of policies and procedures tailored to its individual clients' needs, and reaffirm the client's value to the practice.