Meanwhile, larger firms often have policies in place with the goal to try and ensure that text messages from clients are captured and archived for record keeping, billing, and discovery purposes. At these firms, there is usually no need to get corporate approval from a CTO or in-house IT department. Smaller firms with only a few lawyers often have the ability to decide individually within their office how they want to handle preserving client text messages. Managing this data can get a bit overwhelming and the challenge is to then figure out what the best method is to archive and keep records of all the text message-based communications. However, these text conversations can graduate over time to include photos attachments and other pertinent details or perhaps even evidence related material.

Sometimes client text messages are short communication bursts of a more administrative nature, with the client sending texts simply for scheduling purposes and other non-confidential information exchange. After a lawyer agrees to work with someone, the attorney can quickly find that they are suddenly on the receiving end of text messages from the newly acquired client. Follow up meetings then occur via phone, video conferencing, and email. When a potential client first approaches a law firm or attorney to discuss working together, the initial consultations are most always in person.

Should lawyers communicate via text messages with clients? When a lawyer and a client frequently exchange text messages, the lawyer will often reach a point where he or she needs to decide on the best method to save, archive, and print all client related text messages conversations. Texting is now one of the most widely used forms of communication internationally and in 2021 this spills over into the legal and business world. Attorneys and lawyers are often faced with the challenging task of whether to engage with clients via text message.

Am client text messaging add in