The importance of litigating and sleeping - but not at the same time!

Anyone who had read this blog over the last few years will know that I have ranted more about Access to Justice than anything else. And the broken record will show no sign of stopping soon. But there is something else that is almost of equal importance. This is the increasing issue of well being for lawyers.

I presented a training course in London in January which was all about Risk Management in Personal Injury work. I decided to subtitle it – 'How to Pursue Personal Injury Claims and sleep soundly at night'. I think one driver for me is that I can look back on nearly 40 years in practice which included nights of wasted worry. Why wasted? Because I am still here, the world is still turning and many of the ‘disasters’ are now anecdotes! In one sense this is something that affects all busy professionals. A colleague once ran a work-related stress case for a lawyer. One of their complaints was that they woke up at 6.00am thinking about files. Welcome to our world.

But, for some, it goes beyond the rough and tumble of work. It can be catastrophic. This week, we have had the sad story of Catherine Sandbach, one which is all too familiar. She has been struck off for dishonesty after admitting that she misled clients about the progress of matters, including referencing court proceedings which had not been issued. In mitigation she said that she was suffering from stress. She had a large case load and was expected to deal with matters beyond her experience –

https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/dishonest-solicitor-misled-clients-about-case-progress-to-buy-time/5103068.article

This adds to other recent stories where lawyers have faked or backdated documents or lied about actions being progressed. In one of these a Directions Questionnaire was filed 2 days late and the case handler backdated the letter to the court. The frustrating thing about many of these cases are that they concern errors that are quite capable of being resolved. The consequences of concealment or cover up are usually out of all proportion to the original mistake.

In 2018 I posted my 5 point plan to help lawyers sleep at night. I posted it again in 2019. And I make no apology for repeating it in 2020 –

1.     In the famous words of Michael Jackson - You are not alone. Find someone that you can talk to – it is so easy to be isolated in your little cell. Surrounded by files, emails, deadlines, telephone messages, meetings. To get into that mindset that says ‘I have no time to speak to anyone’. You have. And if you haven’t then make it. 20 mins speaking to someone will get you hours of payback in avoiding sleepless nights. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a problem is never anywhere near as bad when you talk to someone about it. Especially someone who has been there, which if we are honest is all of us! Speak to someone. Right away. Turn your computer off and go and do it now.

2.   Be generous in giving files away. That file that you are scared to look at. The one that has been festering by the side of your desk so long that even the spiders won’t go near it. Give it to someone. It won’t go away on its own. If you can’t look at it, find someone who can. Many solicitors have a file swapping arrangement. I’ll give you mine; you give me yours. Don’t hog matters to protect your bills. You can be far more productive by liberating yourself. Don’t be scared of being criticised. You won’t be. You are more likely to be told – ‘Leave it with me and while you’re there can you look at this one of mine.’ 

3.   See the wood for the trees. It is never as bad as you think it is at 3.00am. The world will not end. I’ve been a lawyer since 1^st April 1980. I have had more 3.00am moments than I like to admit – especially in the early days. Guess what? I’m still here. I’m still alive. I have got to an age where I can say. ‘Phew oblivion never happened.’ It was never going to and never will.

4.   If you need to – confess. If you think the worst has happened – you've missed a deadline and can’t think of a way out. Then tell someone. Today’s is just the next in line of those nightmare cases where lawyers have tried to cover up and been struck off because they were scared to own up. No one was ever struck off for admitting a mistake. Partners, supervisors, insurers will never bite your head off for coming clean. And if they do they shouldn’t be in the job. It also means that it is no longer just your problem. Get it out there and do it as soon as possible. The consequences are less scary than you think and much less stressful than waking up at night or even jeopardising your hard-earned career.

5.   Get a life. Don’t get sucked into that bubble where your legal world becomes all consuming. Being a lawyer is what you do. It is not who you are. See your work as part of your life but not everything. Develop interests and friends outside the pressure cooker. I support Everton. That can very stressful and cause sleepless nights. But it is something different. I love music and photography. I also waste far too much time on social media!

But this isn’t enough. In fact, it is meaningless if businesses do not promote openness.

Partners, Managers, Supervisors, must all adopt this statement –

‘No person in my organisation will ever be afraid to tell me that they are worried about work’

Maybe we should all stay back after work and write that line 100 times!