TLIE Top Tip: Client Communication – Permission to Text
TLIE Top TipsLawyers are in the customer service business, and these days, many of our customers want or prefer to text message us. Text messaging also provides a useful medium for staying in touch with our clients after our representation ends. After all, our best business often comes from those we’ve already served. However, text messaging may implicate some regulations few of us even think about unless we’re asked by a company to “opt in to text messaging for a 10% discount.”
If you want to text message with your clients for reasons unrelated to a specific matter (e.g., for marketing), you must have their consent, so ask for it in your engagement letter. Have your clients expressly agree to accept text messages from you about their specific matter covered by the engagement letter and for marketing purposes. Even if you don’t plan to send them marketing messages now, you may in the future, so get their consent now. And if you do send marketing messages, be sure you have a clear “opt out,” like “text ‘stop’ to no longer receive messages.” Many case management or customer relationship management software packages offer text messaging services and can handle the technical side. Your job is to obtain consent, and a quick and easy way to do that is in your engagement letter.
