Client Assessment and Communication
Client Assessment and Communication tests the front end of a matter: intake, identity and conflict checks, capacity and vulnerability, informed consent, fee transparency, and communication that the client can actually understand. Most marks are lost by candidates who jump to the legal answer before establishing that the client can properly instruct.
Intake and checks
- Conflict checks run against all parties and related entities before substantive advice is given, and are re-run when new parties emerge.
- Identity verification requires documentary evidence and, for entities, beneficial ownership.
- The retainer should record who the client is, who may instruct, the objective, the fee basis, and any limitation of scope.
Capacity and vulnerability
- Capacity is decision-specific and time-specific: a client may understand a will but not a complex commercial settlement.
- Indicators of vulnerability include cognitive impairment, coercion by a family member, bereavement, debt pressure, and language barriers.
- Where capacity is doubtful, obtain a medical or specialist opinion, consider independent advice for the other party, and document your reasoning. Undue influence is distinct from incapacity and must be assessed separately.
Communication and consent
- Informed consent requires explaining options, material risks, and costs in plain language, then recording the client's decision.
- Confirm key advice in writing, particularly refusals of recommended steps.
- Provide accessible formats and interpreters where needed; do not rely on a family member to translate legal advice.
Worked example
An elderly client wants to transfer her house to a nephew "to avoid probate". She is forgetful in conversation and the nephew answers most questions. Correct handling: ask to speak with her alone, test understanding of the consequences including loss of control and deprivation-of-assets risk, seek a capacity opinion if doubts remain, decline to act for the nephew on the same transaction, and document everything. Proceeding on the nephew's account would be the marked error.
Traps that cost marks
- Treating capacity as a single global test rather than decision-specific.
- Accepting instructions from a relative who is not the client.
- Confusing undue influence with lack of capacity.
- Relying on a family member as interpreter for substantive advice.