client-comms-log

/client-comms-log

1. Load ~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/legal-aid/CLAUDE.md → funders, languages, confidentiality conventions.
2. Use the workflow below.
3. Require case-ID or screen-ID (prompt if not provided).
4. 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.
5. 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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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).