A new year means new beginnings. Well, maybe not, but it does mean a new Social Security wage base. The Social Security Administration announced there will be an increase from $117,000 to $118,500 for the 2015 wage base.

Social Security’s Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) 2015 tax rate will be 6.2 percent for both employees and employer. This in turn would make the maximum contributed per individual to be $7,347. The individual’s employer will pay the same amount. For those who are self-employed, the OASDI tax rate is 12.4 percent.

You can learn more about this by visiting Social Security’s Contribution and Benefit Base page of their website.

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By James Mitchell Brown

CEO at Attorney Consultant, Inc.

Is your marketing giving you the results it should? The answer is probably a resounding NO!

No matter what the initial purpose of the consultation, I usually find when I consult for firms that they are not maximizing the results of their marketing. Most are not as egregious as that of a client that I recently helped, who was concerned that he was not getting enough clients from his new television ads in spite of some kick-ass commercials. (I can complement the commercials since I wrote them.)

I listened to the recordings of the intake calls and was amazed at how bad they were. It was shocking they signed up anyone.

• Problem one: Firm policy when prospects called—
  • Screen to see if they were good prospect.
  • Schedule a time for the “intake specialist” to call them back.
  • Naturally, 25% of the prospects were not there when called back.
• Problem two: Receptionist sounded as if the people were lucky to have someone to talk to.
  • She acted too busy to spend much time talking with them.
• Problem three: Anywhere from 40% to 70% of the calls went to voice mail.
  • 80% of them hung up rather than leaving a message.
  • When the hang-ups were called back they were not interested in talking to anyone from the firm.

The next issue is firm owners who trust non-attorneys or associates to determine who the firm can represent. The owner of the firm has to occasionally call some of the people who were rejected to determine if the correct decision was made, find out if they were spoken to with respect and were satisfied with the reasons given for not being represented. If intake calls are recorded it is incumbent upon the firm owner to listen to some by each of the people doing intake. Determine the quality of work being done by the people making the first impression on prospective clients. You have three seconds to make a first impression. The person you may not take as a client who become a valuable source of referrals if treated properly.

The major area where firms are losing money is failing to screen for mass torts. I recently taught an estate planning firm to look for drug cases and they have gotten one women into the Lipitor class, one in the mesh class and two men into the testosterone class.

Every person who calls about any case in any area of law should be screened for mass tort potential. If you don’t it is money you can receive that you are just letting slip away.. When new class actions are filed you can send a letter or email to every current and former client to see if they or anyone they know has ever used that product. .

A client of mine with a social security practice found 861 children who used Risperdal. He didn’t have the staff to call them all but, at my suggestion, hired two college students to do the screening. Sixteen of his former clients got into the class action lawsuit. That will be a huge co-counsel fee for him someday.

Intake is huge. All but one firm I have consulted for, for various reasons, has let good clients slip away. Look at your procedures carefully to make sure your firm signs up the clients you want.