INTEGRAL UNIVERSITY, LUCKNOW

FACULTY OF LAW

SESSION: 2024-25

PSYCHOLOGY - II (LW-351)

ASSIGNMENT:- 2nd

TOPIC:- Discuss the Client Interview and Its Elements.

NAME:- AREESHA AAFREEN

ENROLLMENT NO:- 2200100935
COURSE:- B.A. LL.B (3rd year)
SUBMITTED TO:- Dr. SADAF KHAN (Assistant Professor).

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my teacher “Dr. SADAF KHAN” who
gave me the golden opportunity to do this wonderful assignment of “PSYCHOLOGY-II” on
the topic “Discuss the Client Interview and Its Elements”, which helped me in doing a lot of
research and I came to know so many new things.

I would also like to thank my Dean “Dr. Naseem Ahmed Jafri” and Faculty, for providing me
with possible facilities to enhance our learning and providing us necessary amenities and
required support in completion of this assignment. I am very thankful to them.

I would also like to acknowledge Ms. Preetika in the library for providing me the books and
sources needed to complete the assignment. I am making this assignment not only for marks but
also to increase my knowledge.

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 CLIENT INTERVIEW

I. INTRODUCTION
The ability to interview a client effectively is one of the most important skills a solicitor must
possess. When representing a client it is vital to ensure that you have all the relevant details and
the first few consultations with your new client will provide you with the foundation for your
lawyer/client professional relationship.
Each team of two has a set amount of time to ascertain all information necessary to allow you
to represent your client effectively and then some time will be set aside for you to reflect on
your interview. Competitors must cover all the formalities of an interview, take note of the
personal details of the client, the intricacies of the problem and suggest possible courses of
action.

An interview as described in this book is a meeting between a lawyer or legal adviser and a
client for the purpose of dealing with a client’s work, needs or problems. This chapter begins
by exploring the importance of the interview in the context of legal work. It then goes on to
discuss how a lawyer might prepare for the interview. The centrality of the interview in legal
work an interview is usually the first step taken by a lawyer in handling any legal matter. It has
two main functions. It is the first and most important fact-finding exercise which enables the
lawyer to ascertain a good overview of the facts and issues of the client’s problem or
requirements. It is also the beginning of a working relationship between lawyer and client in
which both parties need to develop confidence and trust in each other if the lawyer’s work is to
be carried out effectively.

Clients are especially concerned about such good communication. The figures from the Royal
Commission on the Provision of Legal Services headed by (now Lord) Benson show that
poor communication is the largest reason for dissatisfaction with their solicitors and good
communication one of the most important reasons for satisfaction. Similar findings appear in

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the research carried out by the Consumers’ Association and many of the complaints that arrive
at the Law Society and the lay Observer share similar concerns. Where clients are satisfied with
their relationship with their lawyers it also appears that their legal cases are run more effectively.

II. ELEMENTS OF CLIENT INTERVIEWING

Interviewing is not simply confined to gathering of facts. It essentially involves personal

interaction in a professional context. Interviewing is not mechanical it involves persons and
persons carry emotions. Therefore, interviews are often affected by several factors such as
interpersonal skills of the interviewer, psychological and mental condition of the
interviewed, and the physical environment of interviewing (the place). The primary function
of lawyer in interviewing is communication function.

III. COMMUNICATION FUNCTION OF INTERVIEW

Most important part of client interviewing is communication. Communication is the cornerstone
of developing relationship between the client and the lawyer. At every level of legal
representation, communication may either hamper or develop the competent representation of a
client. You learn about the client through interview and you would be able to assess the problems
and requirements of the client through interview. To assess the problems faced by a client, you
need to gather all required information. This could be achieved only by establishing a good
communication with the client. Therefore, the communication function has the following three
elements:

a) Building Trust and Rapport with the Client :

Clients are human beings and they are already having problems or at least they believe that they
are in a problem situation. That is why they approach you for your advice. Gathering information
is the primary task of interviewing. But information will not flow from the client spontaneously.

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For example if the client comes to you with a sensitive problem, he/she may feel shy to disclose
personal problems. This is particularly so in cases of sexual offences. So you need to build
rapport with the client and thereby win the trust of the client. Absence of trust and rapport with
the client would severely affect the revealing of relevant information by the client. It would be
difficult to obtain sensitive and personal information in such situations. Failure to get such vital
information may harm the outcome of the case. Consequently, if you fail to focus on building
trust and rapport with the client, you would not be in a position to render effective professional
service.

b) Listening during the interview:

Interviewing is a two way process involving asking of questions as well as listening to the client.
Effective listening is as important as asking relevant questions. Though many would claim that
they know how to listen but in fact very few are good listeners. It is true that listening is a very
natural act, even new-born babies listen, however though what many people do in reality is just
hear.
Listening is a very powerful means of communication and also a way to persuade people to talk.
Listening is not the same as hearing. Listening makes you to understand your client’s problem.
Listening is nothing but understanding the other person. How you listen is also as important as
you listen. If you could demonstrate that you are listening to the client, it would improve building
rapport with the client. Demonstrating listening does not mean concur with or appreciate
whatever the client has done. It means you should not ignore the client’s feelings at the same
time do not criticize the client what he/she had done or failed to do.

c) Gathering facts and ascertaining the client’s problem and legal position:
1. Preliminary Problem Identification:
At this stage you need to get an idea of what is the client’s perspective of the problem and what
legal relief the client is looking for. At this stage you should encourage the client to narrate his

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problem with least interference possible. When you are sure that the client has completed
description of problem, you may conclude the session by summarizing the problem and the
relief. The purpose of such summarization is to convey to the client that you understood the
problem and the relief the client is seeking. Another advantage is that if you did not understand
any particular fact the client gets an opportunity to correct it. At this stage you could ask open-
ended questions.

2. Chronological Overview:
At the second stage you have to check the story in a chronological order. This enhances your
task of understanding the problem of the client. At this stage you would gather facts that lead to
the event, facts immediately surrounding the event and facts following the event. You could ask
questions to fill the gaps left in the client’s narration. Asking specific questions at this stage
would immensely help you to comprehend the problem.

3. Theory development:
After chronological overview of the problem, you have to develop the theory i.e. giving name
to the problem for example that it is a case of theft, robbery or dacoity. Once the theory is
developed then apply the theory to the facts to check whether it fits with the facts given by the
client. While doing such an exercise, you may need more information or sometimes need to
check the client’s story. This becomes necessary to decide the probable cause of action and the
defences available. In such a case you would require to continue the interview. At this stage
leading questions could be asked.

IV. QUESTIONING DURING INTERVIEW

Often the dilemma for the lawyer is what kind of questions may be asked during interview and
what would be the appropriate time to ask such questions. Questioning may involve the potential
risk of stopping the flow of information. If questions are not asked then the client may not give

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Relevant information. Therefore, designing proper questions and deciding the time when they
should be asked is a serious challenge to the lawyer.

Kinds of Questions:
Usually in an interview three types of questions may be asked:

1. Open Ended Questions:

The main purpose of client interviewing is to encourage the free flow of expression of the client’s
problem, his/her concerns and client to narrate his/her problem with least interference. Too much
interference may derail the thoughts of the client which may result in breaking the flow of
information. Open-ended questions give liberty to provide the information without any break
and it allows the client to give the information the way he/she wants. Clients naturally will have
the control over the sequence of information.

2. Narrow/Specific Questions:
Gathering necessary facts is one of the important skills of a lawyer. Relevant information is
essential for effective representation. The information gathered by open-ended questions only
gives an overall idea about the problem of the client. You are required to plug gaps in the
information so gathered for formulating the problem faced by t the client and for theory
development. Further, the client may not give important information such as dates and the place
of incidents. Client also may not give information he/she thinks not important. Therefore, asking
specific questions to collect such information become necessary.

3. Leading Questions:
Leading questions means questions that contain the answer in them. Leading questions as the
name suggests, lead the client to the answer. You will be in command in asking these questions.
As these questions lead the answers they must be asked with due care. These questions help you
to confirm the details already collected during the interview. They allow you to check the
authenticity of the information gathered from the client.

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 V. REPORT FORMATION
A report may be defined as a formal document based on collection of facts, events and opinion
and usually expresses a summarized and interpretative value of information. It can be defined
as communication in which a person, who is assigned the work of report making, gives
information to some individual or organization because it is his or her responsibility to do so.
The word ‘report’ is derived from the Latin word ‘report are’ means to bring back

Types of Reports
Reports can be classified as follows:

(1) Formal and Informal Repots

(2) Routine and special Reports
(3) Oral and written reports
(4) Reports Informational and Analytical

VI. ETHICAL CONSIDERATION

Ethics are codes or rules which govern those practices of a profession. It dictates how
information and client’s relationships should be managed. Code of ethics and the laws are
mutually exclusive. An action may be legal but unethical. However some acts are both illegal
and unethical. Ethical considerations occur when you are required to use these rules to better
serve your clients.

VII. CONCLUSION
Client interviewing and counselling is the area where clinical method better suited. Legal
education in India overlooked several aspects of a legal professional’s work, the most important
among them being Client interviewing and counselling.

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Why are these two aspects more important than the other aspects such as representation of the
client? The lawyer and client relationship is first established during the interview and it is after
the counseling that the client would choose to hire the lawyer or seek some other.

Therefore, focusing on the first meeting point of the client and the lawyer is not only necessary
but also mandatory for an effective practice of law. Poor interpersonal skills of a lawyer would
result in incompetent representation of his/her client. Building interviewing and counseling

Skills would enhance effective client representation and also in securing justice. This course on
interviewing and counseling is intended to build skills in factual investigation, interviewing,
counseling and resolving ethical issues.

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 REFERENCES

The following links are used in the completion of this assignment-

1. https://egyankosh.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/39105/3/Unit-1.pdf

2. http://www.fimt-ggsipu.org/study/ballb112.pdf

3. https://www.brookes.ac.uk/study/subject-areas/law-and-criminology/client-
interviewing

4. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6762130/

5. https://www.brownmosten.com/uploads/1/4/7/7/147775072/effective_client_interviewi
ng.pdf

The following books are used in the completion of this assignment-

1. Singh, A.K. (2000). Uchchtar Samanya Manovigyan New Delhi: Motilal Banaras

2. Baron, R.A. (1995). Psychology: The essential science. New York: Allyn & Bacon

3. Morgan, C.T., King, R.A. Weisz, J.R., Schopler, J. (2001). Introduction to Psychology, Tata
McGraw and Hill.

4. McGeehan. (1990), Experimental Psychology (Indian edition). Prentice Hall of India Pvt. Ltd.

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