Legal Commentary

Shouldn't Money-Back Guarantees Be The Norm?

By Patrick J. Lamb

    Why don't lawyers provide this for their clients?
If you're a great lawyer, or even if you're just fairly good, why not provide this guarantee?  Surely you cannot guarantee an outcome, and your client must understand that, but the level of your service, effort and commitment certainly goes a long way toward creating a satisfied client.

My friend Ralph Palumbo and his colleagues at Summit Law Group send out bills with proposed fees, and then give the customer the right to change the amount due.  When we formed Valorem, we shamelessly copied Ralph's model--we feature our Value Adjustment Line on our homepage.  (I should note that Ralph not only agreed to our request to copy his model, he advocates people doing so, as do I.)  Although not styled a money-back guarantee, it is one.  Any client can mark a bill down to zero if he or she is not satisfied with the work we did. 

Why don't others flock to the Palumbo system?  I wish I knew.  I can guess--fear being the most obvious guess.  But when you're dealing with a sophisticated consumer of legal services, is there any doubt that he or she will ask for an adjustment on an invoice if dissatisfied?  And if the request is likely, isn't there more to be gained by being out front on the issue?  The answer is obvious, but I have been amazed far too many times at the reluctance of many lawyers, even high-powered successful lawyers, to have a discussion about fees with their clients.

I wish clients would look at this and ask lawyers when retaining them whether they will offer a money back guarantee.  And if the answer if no, follow up by asking why not.  Since many clients are themselves in businesses that offer money back guarantees, one wonders why they don't insist on the same consideration from their lawyers.

Full post as published by In Search of Perfect Client Service on July 12, 2008 (boomark / email).