| name | client-comms-log |
| description | Log a client or prospective-client communication — call, email, text, letter, in-person, voicemail. Append-only per-case record with dated entries, direction, medium, summary, action items. Rule 1.18-aware for prospective clients (even declined matters); VAWA-aware for confidentiality with DV survivors. Works alongside /client-letter and /status client. Use when logging a call or client email, reviewing a communication log, or asking "what did we tell [client] last time".
|
| argument-hint | [case-id or screen-id] [--add (default) | --read | --summary | --patterns] |
/client-comms-log
- Load
~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/legal-aid/CLAUDE.md → funders, languages, confidentiality conventions.
- Use the workflow below.
- Require case-ID or screen-ID (prompt if not provided).
- Route by flag:
--add (default): capture direction, medium, staffer, summary, action items, follow-up due. Confirm with user. Append (prepend most-recent-first) to ~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/legal-aid/client-comms/[case-or-screen-id]/log.md.--read: show the most recent N entries.--summary: one-paragraph condensed read.--patterns: scan for unanswered comms, missed follow-ups, language gaps, tone shifts, contact gaps. Supervision-oriented.
- Integration: offer
/legal-aid:deadlines --add if the log establishes a deadline; route to /legal-aid:case-transfer --summary when relevant.
/legal-aid:client-comms-log case=marisol-2026-04
/legal-aid:client-comms-log case=marisol-2026-04 --read
/legal-aid:client-comms-log screen=screen-2026-447 --add
/legal-aid:client-comms-log case=jackson-2025-12 --patterns
Client Communications Log
Purpose
Four reasons to keep this log in civil legal aid practice:
- Malpractice defense. If a client claims "no one ever told me [X]," a dated entry showing otherwise is the answer. Managing attorneys carry professional liability on staff and paralegal work; contemporaneous records protect them.
- Continuity at staff transition. A paralegal leaves, a staff attorney returns from leave, an intake specialist hands the case to housing — they all read the log. They don't re-ask the client questions already answered.
- Supervision visibility. Five unreturned voicemails over six weeks is a pattern. The log makes patterns visible that individual staff might not flag on their own.
- File retention. Legal aid offices have funder and bar obligations to maintain complete client files. Communication history is part of that.
Scope: clients and prospective clients
The log handles two case types:
- Accepted matters — full case ID, fully privileged
- Screened-but-declined matters — screen-ID, Rule 1.18-protected (prospective-client confidentiality applies even though the office didn't take the case)
Rule 1.18 means the office's obligations of confidentiality to a person who consulted about possible representation attach even if the office declined. Communications during eligibility screening and any subsequent contact with a declined caller belong in the screen-ID's log, not in a separate "we didn't take this" file. The log structure is identical; the directory differs (client-comms/case-* for accepted, client-comms/screen-* for declined).
Special handling for VAWA-funded matters and DV survivors
Communications about VAWA-funded DV matters carry additional confidentiality requirements under 42 USC § 13925(b)(2). The log entries themselves are office-confidential as always; the distinct constraints are:
- The log is not shared with the abuser or anyone in the abuser's household, regardless of relationship to the office
- The log is not shared with co-counsel from outside the office without explicit client consent
- Funder reporting (
/lsc-report for VAWA quarterlies) aggregates from the log without reproducing identifying details — small-N aggregation risks identification
- Even within the office, VAWA-matter comms are accessed on a need-to-know basis; the log notes this at the top of any DV-flagged matter
The skill applies these constraints automatically when the matter is flagged as VAWA-funded in the case file.
Load context
~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/legal-aid/CLAUDE.md → funders, languages served, confidentiality conventions, supervision style.
The matter's case file → matter status (accepted / declined), funder allocation, practice area, any DV / VAWA / heightened-confidentiality flag, prior log entries.
Workflow
--add (default) — Log a new communication
Ask:
- Direction: in (client to office) / out (office to client)
- Medium: phone call / voicemail (received) / voicemail (left) / email / text / letter (mail) / in-person / video meeting / other
- Date and time (default to now; allow override for backdating with a flag and reason)
- Staffer name (who took the call / sent the email)
- Client present? (relevant for in-person and video — sometimes client is with a support person, an interpreter, family)
- Language used (if not the office's default — flag if interpreter was present)
- Summary: 2-4 sentence factual summary. Substantive legal analysis does not go here — that lives in memos. This is the record of what was communicated.
- Action items (for office and/or for client) — each with optional deadline
- Follow-up due (if any) — concrete date
Before committing:
- Check whether the action items include a date that should be added to the deadline ledger. If yes, offer: "This communication established a deadline ([action] by [date]). Add to
/legal-aid:deadlines --add?"
- Check for tone or content that suggests escalation — caller distressed, threat to safety mentioned, withdrawal from representation hinted, dispute about prior advice. If detected, note: "This entry contains content that may warrant managing-attorney attention. Flag for review?"
Append to the log. Confirm with the user before writing.
--read [N]
Show the most recent N entries (default 10). Format:
## [Date timestamp] — [direction] · [medium] · [staffer]
[Language note if not default]
Summary: [2-4 sentences]
Action items: [list with deadlines if any]
Follow-up due: [date or "none"]
For a long log, the most recent entries are at the top. Scrolling backward is chronological-reverse (newest first).
--summary
One-paragraph condensed read of the full log. Useful for:
- A staffer picking up a transferred case
- A managing attorney preparing for case rounds
- A funder monitoring request
The summary covers: communication frequency, who's been driving the contact (office or client), recent significant communications, any unresolved action items, any pattern flags. Not legal analysis — communication pattern.
--patterns
Scan-the-log for supervision-relevant patterns:
- Unanswered communications: office voicemails left without response after [threshold] days
- Missed follow-ups: action items with deadlines past, not completed
- Language gaps: entries indicating language barrier where no interpreter was present
- Tone shifts: entries indicating client became upset, withdrew, or escalated
- Contact gaps: periods over [threshold] days with no recorded contact in an active matter (often the staffer made contact but didn't log; sometimes the matter actually went dark — both matter)
- VAWA-matter access pattern: if a VAWA-flagged matter shows access by staff who don't have a documented role in the matter, flag for managing-attorney review (this is rare and worth surfacing)
Output is supervision-oriented: what patterns exist, what they might mean, what the suggested follow-up is. The managing attorney decides what to do with the patterns.
Output format (per entry in log file)
The log file at client-comms/[case-or-screen-id]/log.md accumulates entries newest-first:
# Communications log: [case ID or screen ID]
**Client:** [name if accepted matter / "prospective client (Rule 1.18)" if screened-only]
**Practice area:** [from case file]
**Funder allocation:** [from case file; "screening only" if not accepted]
**Confidentiality flags:** [VAWA / DV / heightened / standard]
---
## [Date timestamp] · [direction in/out] · [medium] · [staffer]
[Optional: language used, interpreter present, client accompaniment]
**Summary:** [2-4 factual sentences]
**Action items:**
- [office or client] [action] [deadline if any]
**Follow-up due:** [date or "none"]
[Optional: flag for managing-attorney attention with reason]
---
[Next entry in same format]
Cross-skill propagation
- Communications logged here that include a new deadline propagate to
/legal-aid:deadlines --add.
- Communications logged here that include a new fact bearing on intake or eligibility (income changed, address changed, new conflict surfaced) prompt: "This entry contains information that may update the matter's intake. Re-run
/legal-aid:client-intake --update to refresh?"
/legal-aid:case-transfer pulls a --summary of the log into the transfer memo automatically./legal-aid:status client and /legal-aid:client-letter invocations should append themselves to the log after sending (this happens via the office's workflow — the staffer runs /legal-aid:client-comms-log --add after sending the letter).
What this skill does NOT do
- Store substantive legal analysis. Analysis goes in
/memo; this log records the communication, not the lawyering behind it.
- Auto-summarize calls or emails from connected systems. The staffer summarizes what was said — they were there, the tool wasn't.
- Edit prior entries. Append-only. Corrections happen as new entries that reference the prior one ("Correction to entry of [date]: client name is X, not Y as previously recorded.").
- Delete entries. Office privilege and bar-retention obligations apply; entries persist.
- Override VAWA / Rule 1.18 confidentiality constraints. Treats VAWA-flagged matters with the additional confidentiality discipline; treats screen-IDs with Rule 1.18 attached.
- Share across cases. Each case ID's log lives in its own directory; no cross-case search unless the managing attorney specifically authorizes (rare, and surfaces in the audit log).
