CHAPTER 1 - 1-4 DILIGENCE

• Jurisdiction: United States

1-4 Diligence

A lawyer must act with reasonable diligence and promptness.⁹⁵ This may require that the lawyer take reasonable efforts to expedite litigation.⁹⁶ Diligence issues continue to be a major source of client dissatisfaction and grievance complaints.⁹⁷ Often, however, the complaint stems not from actual lack of diligence but from poor client management which allows the client to believe that the lawyer is not pursing her case diligently. Diligence cases often also include a lack of communication issue.

A lawyer's duty to diligently pursue a client's matter continues until the representation is terminated. In Statewide Grievance Committee v. Gifford, a lawyer was found to have been properly disciplined, including for a violation of Rule 1.3, where he abandoned a client's case when he believed that pursuing it further would have placed him in jeopardy of a violation of Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.⁹⁸

Grievance complaints claiming a lack of diligence do not result in probable cause findings if the lawyer can show a pattern of attention to the matter. Often, diligence complaints are coupled with complaints related to communication. When a lawyer stops communicating with his client, it is natural for the...