The findings of the LawCover Risk Management Study sound a warning to solicitors to take managing client expectations seriously. The title of the Study is Managing Client Expectations and Professional Risk to reflect the scope of the expectation gap which can exist between lawyer and client about what is being promised by the lawyer and what can be realistically delivered. Lawyers often do not recognise this gap exists. Even if they do, they may not manage to close the gap with the result that the client sues when the case is lost, the settlement is less than expected, the deal is not watertight or no loophole can be found. The way lawyers see things, clients want the moon.
Lawyers deliver the stars.
The point is, lawyers know clients can have unrealistic expectations. They know that for some clients disappointment with the outcome of a matter is a good enough reason to sue. You may recall that all those years ago the Carbolic Smoke Ball Co. argued unsuccessfully that claims about its influenza remedy were mere puffery. In that case it was found the puffery was teamed with a serious promise which was actionable when not delivered, i.e. the promise of one hundred pounds if the influenza remedy failed. The line between self-evident exaggeration and misrepresentation is a fine one.