Email is such an important tool for communicating information with colleagues; clients; service providers; banks; and many others we interact with in our practice as lawyers. Some people are good at using email for the tool that it is with its limitations and strengths and others are not. Some people hate email - this is true - and would love it if you used almost any other way to communicate with them. I will set out some tips for use of email that I hope you will find helpful.
Tip 1: Should you reply? If so, who should be replied to?
Email can be a lot in that you may find yourself inundated with messages. Consider whether you need to reply to a message and if you do not need to, don’t. Consider when you reply whether you should reply to everyone who was copied on the message. If your reply only concerns one or two or three of the people who were copied on the message, only reply to them. On that same note, if copying someone or blind copying someone will be helpful, add them to the message as cc or blind cc, even if they were not on the original message. If someone should not be copied, do not copy them. For example, if opposing counsel copied their client on a message to you, that does not mean that it is appropriate or wise for you to copy their client on the reply or to add or include your client in the chain of messages. The Rules of Professional Conduct deal with communications by lawyers with represented parties. The Rules apply to email communications like any other communication.
Tip 2: Do not send messages to the wrong people
Use Reply All with awareness. If there is someone on the Reply All list who should not receive the reply, such as the opposing lawyer or spouse or child of your client who is not your client and who you are not authorized to share information with, do not include them in your reply. Pay attention to the auto entry function. There can be many people who come up when you start typing a name who should not receive the information you are sending regardless of how it is sent.
Tip 3: You and others may need to open and read the ENTIRE message.
Email messages can be bigger than what you can see on the screen in your snapshot view of the message. Open your email messages. Read to the bottom even if you have to scroll through a few pages. If you are writing to a client and know it is important the client reads the entire message, assume they will only read the 3 or 4 lines they can see when the scan messages and tell the client to read the entire message - scroll to the bottom where there is important information for them to see. In my experience, few people read messages all the way through unless they are told they should.
Tip 4: Keep the chain of messages only if the chain is helpful
Data storage is an issue. Email messages often go back and forth with little added information and then there is a new issue. The chain below is often irrelevant, but, requires a significant amount of data storage space. If you are using a commercial email service that may not matter for a long time or it may be resolved by automatic deletions of messages you wanted to keep. For your clients and others who may not be using commercial email hosting services, they may not get the message. Some services stop receiving messages when the InBox gets too full. If you print messages, a giant chain of irrelevant or outdated information is a poor use of paper and time. When replying to a message, delete the information that is no longer relevant.
Tip 5: Use informative subject lines to start and change subject lines as the subject changes
I make an effort to use a subject line that gives useful information to the recipients and makes a message easy to search when I am organizing and filing my email messages. Most people do not think of subject lines in email messages as things they can change. You can change them. If the reply should include - “issue resolved” or “meeting date changed” or any other obvious change, make the change. It is helpful for you and for the person you are responding to and a very good use of time.
Tip 6: ALL CAPS IS A FORM OF EMAIL SHOUTING - use capitals thoughtfully and rarely
Using all capital letters in an email message or multiple exclamation marks !!!! Or question marks ???? is generally a rude and inappropriate way of communicating in an email message which is already a limited form of communication. If you feel like a reply merits all cap; multiple exclamation or question marks, consider why and articulate that. If that does not seem reasonable and you still want to discuss the issue or express yourself with all caps; multiple exclamation or question marks; wait a day if you can to reply. Remember that you can also pick up the phone and call to speak about the thing that is troubling you; that annoyed or provoked you. It may also be something were arranging an in person meeting will result in the best outcome.
Tip 7: A Formal communication if sent by email is still a formal communication
If you are communicating in a formal capacity, even if the medium you choose to use is email which most of us tend to use informally, maintain rules of formality like a proper salutation; a well structured body or report and a proper introduction to your message and a proper closing to it.
Tip 8: Be mindful of the fact that email messages get caught by junk and spam filters sometimes
Some messages never make it to their destination. I have heard a variety of statistics on this, but, have no formal ones to include here. I know from experience that is true. Some messages never get received for a variety of reasons including: failures by the system to get them from the sender to the recipient; some are blocked by spam or junk filter settings that block out certain senders; messages with links; with attachments; and so on. Sometimes, an email address gets entered incorrectly. If it is important that your communication be received by the person you are sending it to, consider sending it some other or additional way or call the recipient to see if the message was received.
Tip 9: Email is not a secure means of communication - avoid and, better yet, do not use for sharing/sending sensitive information
Email was never intended to be used the way it is. It is NOT a secure form of communication. It should not be used for sending and receiving dates of birth; social insurance numbers; driver’s licences; banking information and other sensitive information. There are more and less secure cloud based portal services. The ability to send paper documents by mail; traceable mail; courier and hand delivery or pick-up remains available to even those working remotely from home.
Tip 10: Organize your email messages
A giant Inbox of thousands of messages is a relatively unhelpful resource. An organized email system like any other collection of information is a fabulous tool for more reasons than I have space to list in this article.
The next time you use email as a means to communicate, consider whether it is improving or decreasing the value and effectiveness of the communication you are or wish to engage in. Remember to pay attention when you use it.
About the Author
Kathleen Robichaud is a sole practitioner practicing in Manotick Ontario in the areas of Wills & Estates; Business/Corporate Law and Real Estate. She is a past member of the Board of Directors of the Ontario Bar Association; a past Chair of the Sole Small Firm General Practice Section of the Ontario Bar Association and a generally active volunteer with the Ontario Bar Association and of the County of Carleton Law Association
Any article or other information or content expressed or made available in this Section is that of the respective author(s) and not of the OBA.