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Client Counselling and Interviewing

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Submitted By edosaosaretin
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INTER-PERSONAL AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS: VIABLE TOOLS IN THE ART OF CLIENT INTERVIEWING AND COUNSELLING
The need for client interviewing and counselling as part of legal practice cannot be over-emphasized as clients being potential parties to a dispute will more often than not consult lawyers to seek the best option to settling the particular dispute. Client interviewing can be described as receiving information about the clients dispute, deciding based on that information what the best legal means of settling the clients dispute is whilst using the opportunity to establish and maintain high standards of client care. To this end, the expertise and most especially legal skills in the process of interviewing are needed. This is expedient and necessary especially in the evolving Nigerian legal system where alternatives to litigation (which is the most popular method of settling disputes) such as arbitration, mediation and negotiation are becoming increasingly popular.
To this point, there are different fundamental skills and techniques that need not just be learnt, but constantly practiced to ensure that clients get the value for the time spent with legal advisers. The skills and techniques which include: asking appropriate questions, showing empathy, being a good listener and a capable researcher etc, are all part and parcel of what legal practice is all about. This explanation therefore establishes the fact that interviewing is the principal means by which the lawyer comes to understand the issues that brings a client to his office in the first place.
From the foregoing, it is therefore deduced that an inter-personal relationship with a client needs to be established before a professional one will come to manifest. The fundamental reason why an inter-personal relationship should be nurtured from the onset is that clients are more likely to feel satisfied with the

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