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The value of advice records and attendance notes for law firms

The importance of practitioners making detailed attendance notes and the courts’ ongoing preference for this type of evidence has been highlighted in a recent case.

08/08/2021 · 1 minute read

The importance of practitioners making detailed attendance notes and the courts’ ongoing preference for this type of evidence, has been highlighted once again in the recent case of Mundil-Williams v Williams & Ors [2021] EWHC 586 (Ch).

In this matter, the High Court was clear that, contemporaneous file notes were a more reliable record than the recollection of an individual, several years later.

The significance of keeping detailed attendance notes is not a new concept for practitioners, and this case reiterates the sentiment of earlier cases, where judges stressed the importance of contemporaneous documents, the fallibility of human memory, and the dangers of accepting oral testimony that conflicts with contemporaneous documents.

This article discusses a range of cases where the value of records are discussed, the regulatory impetus for keeping detailed attendance notes, and recommended actions lawyers can take to keep consistent quality records.

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