Most of us would never retain a lawyer who promised we would beher “24th most important case this month.” But the reality is thatgood attorneys take every case seriously. That’s what makes themeffective lawyers and enables them to stay in business. Law firmsmust have a strong client base to earn their money, and that meanstaking care of the people they represent.

Employee complaints about their legal counsel come from themisconceptions about this interaction—the seemingly unbridgeablegap between client expectations and attorneys’ concepts of customerservice. The client is laying out thousands of dollars, and hewants the lawyer’s response to match the outlay.

The biggest shock may come in the courtroom, where clients maybe surprised to find their attorneys discussing other cases withthe judge or other lawyers. Most employees have no mechanism forunderstanding the legal system and how attorneys work. Without suchunderstanding, it appears to the litigant that his or her case isgoing nowhere, and this impacts time, productivity and focus atwork. This is especially jarring for employees who engage with thelegal system for the first time while trying to maintain theirjobs.

Human resource managers, line supervisors, and others involvedin managing work processes and the employees who perform them mustunderstand the degree of stress that financial and legal problemscan cause their workers. Such tension may result in loweredproductivity, and the root cause of the drop in the worker’s outputmay not be fully understood by HR and line management.

There’s hardly anything that affects a worker’s morale andstress levels more than being unexpectedly cast into the legalsystem. And there is not always comprehension about how suchproblems contribute to negative attitudes and performance on thejob. Repeated continuances, delays and postponements in court casesare extremely stressful. Many times an employee takes off work anentire day, and then is told, without explanation, that her case isbeing continued, pushed off to another day of uncertainty andconfusion. It only takes a judge five minutes to make such anannouncement, but it costs the worker a whole day away from herjob, plus the time she had to spend in preparation for her abortedcourt appearance.

Many cases don’t even involve the employee directly, but theemployee’s family members, as was the situation of a man who toldof having to miss work because of attending court hearings relatedto his son’s legal issues. The process can become unwieldy forindividuals who prefer to hire their own attorney.

The problem human resource managers face has two components.First is the increased stress levels employees experience when theysuffer through financial, debt, credit or legal problems. Secondly,the court and hurdles within the legal system can exponentiallyincrease the already high stress levels that lead to frustration,anxiety and anger, sometimes requiring physical or mentaltreatment. These issues intensify the longer the case dragsout.

Merely being involved in a legal matter can cost employees andtheir employers hundreds and even thousands of dollars per year inlost productivity and work time. Workplace accidents and injuriesabound each year, many attributable to the lack of concentration orthe anger and frustration associated with being involved in alawsuit. Many of these battles can be heated, as when parents arefighting one another for custody of their children.

When employees become involved in the legal system, frustrationreigns and morale often suffers. When employees with legal problemsare thrust into a system that appears to have no immediatesolutions—and a number of serious obstacles and costs—they canbecome discouraged and upset. And when they receive bills withattorney charges for these endless and seemingly unnecessarydelays, the feelings of frustration and low morale arecompounded.

One of the most frequent and painful challenges is litigationsurrounding divorce, especially when child custody issues areinvolved. Much of this litigation can be contentious andvindictive.

The next most common example of employees feeling powerless andplunging into serious mental and physical stress are thoseinvolving credit and debt issues, like collections, repossessions,foreclosures, wage garnishments, and judgments. These problems canmake employees feel there is no help anywhere.

What if employees have many more legal problems than HR is awareof? What if HR is missing the breadth of employee legal problems?What if the loss of productivity and the cause of many accidentsand injuries on the job are related to legal issues? What ifemployees’ legal problems are running up health care costs? What iflawyers can actually help to increase employee productivity?

There may be more to employee absence, lack of productivity,accidents and injuries, and increased prescription and medical planusage than is obvious to HR managers. In many instances, given theprivate nature of financial and legal problems, there is apossibility employees may not be revealing the true nature of manyof their most serious problems. Thus, there may be a much moreserious need for legal and financial help for employees than iscurrently understood.

By understanding the breadth of employee stress issues, it maybe possible for HR to institute programs to help manage the causesof stress and thereby decrease accidents, increase productivity anddecrease health care usage and costs without huge costs to theemployer.

It’s critical to understand the causal connection betweenemployee legal and financial problems and the stress caused whenemployees do not have resources or help to handle and solve thesedifficulties. Many studies have addressed the connection betweenstress and financial and legal problems. One presented the shockingconclusion that “workplace stress is rife in 70 percent oforganizations; the fact that companies are not viewing stress froma scientific, strategic, preventive perspective is extremelyworrying.”

HR managers might help their companies benefit from a betterunderstanding of how legal problems affect employees, how employeesmisunderstand the American legal system, how misunderstanding thesystem can create huge gaps in expectations, and how disruptivelitigation can be for employees.

Understanding this potential for disruption is the key point forHR managers. Such disruption may not be mere inconvenience or milddiscomfort, but often goes to the heart of a worker’s familystructure, creating serious problems that lead to missing work orlack of attention and focus while at work. The costs to theemployer each year in increased health care and emotional distresstreatment and prescription drug costs are skyrocketing, and theymandate a new approach to managing this stress and the toll ittakes on marriages and children. Actual costs of employee stressrelated to legal and financial matters can be found all over theAmerican workplace in increased absenteeism, more mistakes,accidents and injuries, and decreased work productivity.

The real problem for employers is that when an employee has oneor more of these major stressful legal and financial problems, itbecomes the employer’s problem too. The good news is that there aremeasures and programs available to HR that can help decreaseaccidents and health care usage and associated costs, and increaseproductivity. In contemporary culture one of the best things abusiness can do for its employees and itself is explore andimplement a plan for helping workers faced with legal problems.

Such a benefit plan can make significant progress in closing thecustomer service expectations gap between clients and attorneys,and ease the stress that tracks the employee home every night, thentrails the worker back to the job every morning.

Bob Heston is president and chief executive officer ofLegal Access Plans. He can be reached [email protected].