Month: September 2021

Solo practitioners, attorneys who are part a small legal firm or even those employed with behemoth national groups are well aware that their best source of future business is their current client base. While the most efficient way to increase billings is to sell more services to existing clients, that only works for so long.

To fuel the growth that takes a firm to the next level, you need quality referrals from existing clients to new parties. How likely are your clients to refer to their friends and colleagues? You can’t answer this question with what you think or what you feel. You need hard, cold data – the kind that comes from a client satisfaction survey.

According to one leading legal industry consulting firm, there is no other marketing tool that comes close to a client satisfaction survey for giving you measurable insight into your client relationships. Of all investments of a firm’s marketing budget, none is as cost effective as a client satisfaction survey.

If you think a client satisfaction survey is just a “feel good report card,” you are selling survey results short. A well-designed survey instrument can serve as an early warning system to alert you to the fact that:

• A key client is not satisfied with your work or service.
• You are leaving money on the table by not meeting all of your clients’ needs.

Savvy attorneys also use client surveys to spot cross-selling opportunities, send out “test balloons” about new services under consideration, and identify competitors’ weaknesses.

Here are a few basics to consider as you get started with surveys:

• Set a clear goal for the survey and communicate that in the survey’s introduction.
• Choose a client satisfaction survey template based on best practices to get started.
• Survey fatigue is real – ask no more than five questions.
• Email may be the optimal way to reach clients rather than taking their time with a phone call or asking them to fill out a paper form.
• Use your blog or website as a place to launch the survey but don’t have it pop up every time someone comes to your site – that’s just plain annoying. You are tracking your unique site visitors, right?
• Survey at the right time. After a legal matter has concluded, on the anniversary of the client’s first use of the firm or annually are all opportune times to conduct a survey. You might also consider surveying clients who have discontinued their relationship with you to determine why they left and if the door is open to reinvigorate the relationship.
• Create a graphical representation of your survey results rather than a narrative-driven format. Sometimes, facts become more obvious in graphical form.

Once your survey is complete, set aside time to analyze the results and act on them. Failing to implement corrective action can be more damaging to your firm than not surveying your clients in the first place. When clients take their time to flag a problem for you, they expect to see it resolved or at least addressed.

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By Jesse Fellabaum

Many people opt for probation over jail time. At the time, it seems like a less painful way to repay your debt to society. However, most recently, convicted defendants fail to fully understand the impact of the probation option. For example, serving time on probation simply means you are putting in your time outside a jail – you are still serving the time.

Many defendants underestimate how difficult serving out the months or years of their probation can actually be. Did you know that you are responsible for paying for every court-ordered action, such as wearing an ankle monitor, participating in counseling sessions and submitting to drug testing?

Individuals who comply to the letter with the terms of their probation can find themselves being released early from these conditions according to a new Georgia law. Only those who have completed three years of their probation with no new violations, have not had a parole revocation in the previous 24 months and have paid all court-ordered fees are eligible for “early release on the outside.”

Probation Violation: More than an Oops

However, if you’re arrested while on probation for a felony or misdemeanor crime, your life just got more complicated. Just being arrested while on probation creates a new charge: probation violation. Plus, your probation officer can recommend to the court that you serve the rest of your probation period behind bars.

The impact of a probation violation varies based on its severity, and there are three types of violations: technical, special condition and substantive. A “technical violation,” the lowest rank of offense, is generally reserved for defendants who fail to pay fines, do not report to their probation officers as ordered or leave the jurisdiction. More serious offenses, which are called “special condition violations,” refer to instances of not completing court-ordered substance use testing or court-ordered programs. The third and most serious charge is a “substantive violation,” which can mean that you spend the rest of your probationary period in jail, or could see your probation period extended, community service requirements lengthened, fines increased and special conditions, such as substance use testing, added.

It doesn’t happen often but if you are arrested while on probation, there are interrelated factors that can increase your time in jail, toll the probation clock and increase your fines and community service requirements. For many, the confusion comes in when you have to decide what to do first.

What to Do First

Let’s walk through an example to better understand your options. You are on probation in Fulton County when you get pulled over, fail the roadside tests and are charged with DUI in Cobb County. You will likely have to stay in jail for anywhere from two weeks to 30 days for violating probation. Sitting in jail stops the clock from running on your probation because you are serving time for a new charge, which extends your probation period and ensures that your probation violation will be disclosed to jurors deciding the DUI case.

Once your probation violation time is served in Cobb County, you are free to post bail and be released from jail pending trial on the DUI charge, which the allows the probation clock to resume as soon as you are out. Following this sequence of steps permits you to continue clearing the probation time associated with the original charge in Fulton County as you await trial in Cobb County.

For many defendants, probation is a decision that keeps on giving. Sometimes, those post-sentencing gifts come because you didn’t understand the terms of your probation and how easily it can be revoked. Stay out of trouble and you can satisfy the court-ordered time on the outside — you might even get released from probation early.