On Risk Management:
Docket control: Avoiding the Calendar’s Malpractice Traps
By Kay G. Kenny
The Daily Record, January 8, 2001

Docket control is one of the major keys to effective risk management. According to most risk managers, most litigation-based claims involve missed filing deadlines, chiefly the applicable statutes of limitations. You can eliminate these claims altogether by adopting and enforcing docket control procedures.

Training is vital. Educating lawyers and staff members to effectively use the docket or time control system, manual or electronic, works to the firm’s benefit. A commercial and retail debt collection firm in Montgomery County, for example, handles a high volume of time-sensitive work. Training for the firm’s staff members occurs weekly, with regular review of the firm’s time-control software, a program written specifically for firms engaged in debt collection.

In short, the docket control system in your office, whether manual or computerized, must include all of the following essential steps:

Calendar/verification

Each office needs a method to verify the date a claim arose and the applicable statute of limitations, administrative hearing dates, all court appearances, closing dates, procedural deadlines, pleading and discovery dates and appointment/meeting deadlines. Calendaring errors remain the leading cause of malpractice claims. Common mistakes include data error entries, not using file review dates, no back-up calendar and waiting until the last minute to file documents.

To avoid these malpractice “traps,” develop and use good office-wide calendars and procedures that:

  • Are easy to use and maintain for beginning and advanced users;

  • Flexible enough to accommodate different work styles and areas of practice yet simultaneously uniform so that someone else could easily identify your commitments;

  • Include some redundancy either through multiple paper calendars. Back up your electronic time control system on disk or tape daily. Store back-up disk and calendars off site in the event of a fire or other disaster;

  • Have a cross check procedure in place between the master and the back-up calendar to catch calendaring errors;

  • Are habitual. Checking your time control system needs to be an integral part of your daily routine. Your system should provide a reminder to review all open files on a routine basis, even when no action is anticipated.

  • Include at least one docket date for every open file to ensure that all files are reviewed regularly;

  • Are leakproof. Develop a procedure to make sure the necessary work is completed before an entry can be removed from the system.

  • Include tracking procedures that enable the firm to know who made any entry and;

  • Have a strict standard of accountability for each person in the firm, coordinated among all firm members. A common docket not only helps your staff plan workflow, it sometimes uncovers potential conflicts of interest.

    • In case all else fails, perfect a system for discovering files that are “ripe.” Active files should either be marked and filed in your system, or open on your desk. Any file that sits on your credenza for more than two days is either a client problem or malpractice waiting to happen!

    The standard of accountability is really nothing more than a calendaring guideline that sets forth all items to be diaried, the frequency of reminder dates, the applicable deadlines for the various types of cases the firm handles and the firm’s own deadlines for upcoming critical events.

    For example, the firm might set a deadline requiring that all suits must be filed no later than three months before the statute will run. An attorney checks every date and calculates the date the statute will run, noting it with initials on the intake form.

    Out-of-state verification

    If the claim arises in another state, you should verify, in writing, the applicable statute through an attorney practicing in that state. The statute of limitations varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. If the claim is not worth this expense, it is not likely worth pursuing.

    Early warning

    You should begin receiving “task notices” of impending deadlines well in advance of the filing date. These notices must continue up to the filing deadline and take into account your individual propensity to defer action — the greater your tendency to postpone, the more advance notices you need.

    Second set

    You should never be the only person notified. In a firm, at least one other person should be regularly alerted of your impending deadline. If you are a sole practitioner, your administrative assistant should be warned and encouraged to cheer or prod you to action. Borrowing from Smokey Bear, “Only YOU can prevent a blown statue of limitation”.

    Just do it!

    The sharpest support staff and the best calendars cannot compensate for the bane of nearly everyone who works under the constant pressure of deadlines — procrastination.

    Frequently, people put off work because they think it’s more intricate than it really is. Make yourself open the file and start it. Nine times out of ten, it’s not as bad as you think it will be. Even the most complex problem is simple if you break it down into smaller components. To use your time-control system most effectively, estimate how much time the work will take and schedule those hours into this calendar, too. A tickler system is no good if you don’t also schedule time to do the work!

    Resources

    Legal Mutual Liability Insurance Society of Maryland - Application For Lawyers Professional Liability Insurance New Business MLPL-159, January 2000 & Renewal Application, January 2000.
    "Loss Prevention Self Audit" - AIM, revised 1992.
    "Three of the Top Ten Malpractice Traps & How to Avoid Them" - by Mark C.S. Bassingthwaighte, J.D. & Robert D. Reis, On The Docket, Spring 1999.
    "Docket Control is the Key to Risk Management" - by John Q. Beard, Esq., LML Today, Lawyers Mutual Insurance Company of North Carolina, August 1999.

    Kay G. Kenny is Assistant General Manager of the Legal Mutual Liability Insurance Society of Maryland. This is the sixth in a series of articles that includes claim prevention techniques, designed to minimize the likelihood of being sued for legal malpractice. The material presented does not establish, report or create the standard of care for attorneys, is not legal advice and does not represent a complete analysis of the topics. Readers should conduct their own appropriate research.

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