Module 7

Your own mistakes: disclosure, apology, conflict, insurance and recovery

Every lawyer makes mistakes. A date is miscalculated, a clause is left out, a document is sent to the wrong person, an assumption is not checked, advice is given that turns out to be wrong. Most mistakes are small and corrected at once. Some are serious, and affect a client’s money, rights or liberty. The hardest bad news to give is the news of one’s own mistake, because the feelings are at their strongest: shame, fear of blame, fear for one’s career and a wish for it not to be true. The temptation to hide it, to fix it quietly or to delay is real, and it is dangerous. The reputations of lawyers are damaged much more often by concealment than by the original error, and professional rules in most places treat honest, prompt disclosure as a duty. This module sets out the order of steps that sound practice shares, explains why each is there, deals with the thorny questions of apology and admission, the conflict of interest that a mistake creates and professional indemnity insurance, and ends with learning and recovery. The Mistake Disclosure Planner turns a few facts into an ordered list of steps. The rules differ between countries and professions, and nothing here applies any particular rule. All the people are invented.

General education on giving bad news and handling difficult conversations, using invented people, firms and matters. It is not legal advice, and it does not state the professional rules, employment law or insurance requirements of any country. Those differ and change: check the rules that apply to you and take advice.