Solicitors writing letters instead of emailing, WHY??

Gabbs_the_Newt

buggy_boy wrote: »

Conveyancers are in the dark ages, they are set in their ways, maybe some day it will be brought into the 21st Century. Im actually surprised your solicitor uses email to communicate.

Technically an email is not seen in the same way as a written letter in uk law thus conveyancers tend to use email, although ive never understood this as most other areas of solicitors do use email..

What UK law is that?

shortcrust

It’s not the quite the same thing but I tend not to reply to emails for a couple of days unless they’re really urgent. It’s stops the time sucking back and forth that you get with quick responses and makes people think more carefully when they write.

Thrugelmir

shortcrust wrote: »

It’s not the quite the same thing but I tend not to reply to emails for a couple of days unless they’re really urgent. It’s stops the time sucking back and forth that you get with quick responses and makes people think more carefully when they write.

Easier to pick up and read a paper file. Particularly when one is picking it up and then putting it down for several days. Being totally electronic isn't the be all and end all. When reading through 100+ pages at work. I print the documents. Simply not possibly to skim backwards and forwards through the pages on screen. As clever as Barristers are. You don't see them standing in court referring to Ipads either.

If anything email creates work. Too easy to fire one off without thought.

SG27

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Easier to pick up and read a paper file. Particularly when one is picking it up and then putting it down for several days. Being totally electronic isn't the be all and end all. When reading through 100+ pages at work. I print the documents. Simply not possibly to skim backwards and forwards through the pages on screen. As clever as Barristers are. You don't see them standing in court referring to Ipads either.

If anything email creates work. Too easy to fire one off without thought.

I can understand that, emails can be a mess to keep organised. However thats no excuse not to use it email to communicate. Like you say print them off and stick them in the file.

Thrugelmir

SG27 wrote: »

I can understand that, emails can be a mess to keep organised. However thats no excuse not to use it email to communicate. Like you say print them off and stick them in the file.

Without knowing the precise circumstances it's impossible to comment. Everyone assumes sending an email illicits a prompter response. Most likely it doesn't. For no other reason than there are only so many working hours in a day.

SG27

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Without knowing the precise circumstances it's impossible to comment. Everyone assumes sending an email illicits a prompter response. Most likely it doesn't. For no other reason than there are only so many working hours in a day.

Well in any circumstance email is a promper response. As there is a delay of 2 or 3 days just while the letter goes through the postal system. 2 or 3 days after the reply is written and before its recieved. Its just wasted time.

dunroving

SG27 wrote: »

I can understand that, emails can be a mess to keep organised. However thats no excuse not to use it email to communicate. Like you say print them off and stick them in the file.

A colleague refused to use emails (late 1990s). The department office staff would print off any emails he received in a single batch every morning and put them in his office mailbox.

He would then hand-write responses on the printed emails and give these to them in a single batch by the end of the day (or whatever time of day he decided he was leaving the office, usually by mid-afternoon.

They would then log into his email account and type up his responses.

Although a bit archaic, it did encourage anyone communicating with him to choose their words carefully and make sure that everything they had to say was in the email (otherwise there would be a 24-hr delay in receiving a reply to the follow-up). It was, I guess, more like a letter-writing style but a bit faster than regular mail as US mail could take up to 7 days to arrive.

I do think the idea of saying "! will respond to only one email from you per day" would focus the mind, rather than the current almost conversation-through-the-day style I see so often. "Oh yes, one more thing ...." That's what the telephone should be used for, IMO (you know, the thing we used to use when we actually talked to one another)

But sending everything through the mail? Entirely unnecessary.

agrinnall

Conveyancers still think they are living in the days when a letter posted in the morning would be delivered that afternoon, rather than being routed via a sorting office in Inverness or Truro.

robatwork

A very cynical person may suggest that some solicitors charge in 6 minute increments.

It's easier to justify a few 6 minute periods of time in typing a letter, printing it, signing it, enveloping, addressing, stamping and posting.

My last conveyancing had a new-fangled web portal where I could see each stage as it happened on the web. But the letters still went with penny blacks.

Slinky

dunroving wrote: »

I do think the idea of saying "! will respond to only one email from you per day" would focus the mind, rather than the current almost conversation-through-the-day style I see so often. "Oh yes, one more thing ...." That's what the telephone should be used for, IMO (you know, the thing we used to use when we actually talked to one another)

But sending everything through the mail? Entirely unnecessary.

That's all very well but I have a hopeless customer that if you ask her more than one thing in an email will only respond to one question and nothing else. I then have to email again asking the questions that didn't get answered the first time.


Fortunately I don't do business with her much anymore.