A legal malpractice claim can be an unsettling event for any attorney. In reviewing the data for legal malpractice claims, often there are trends and common themes among claims and even claimants. Some issues, with a little investigation, can become apparent early and may lead an attorney to decline a representation. For this reason, the practice of screening prospective clients for warning signs has become an increasingly valuable tool in legal malpractice claim prevention.

The concept of vetting clients seemingly conflicts with attorneys’ business and financial goals. Attorneys tend to lose some work due to conflict checks alone, so it can feel counterintuitive to identify other bases for turning down work. The issue with failing to screen clients is that it may increase the odds of taking on a problem client. Such relationships rarely improve during the course of a representation, but may instead end with a legal malpractice claim. The challenge, of course, is to screen out the problem clients without significantly impacting the attorneys’ business and financial needs.