Procedural Risk Assessment: Tips For Effective Client Interviews

Originally posted on September 10 2026 by Hilary Linton for Riverdale Mediation Ltd.

The first point of contact with a new client should be designed to get information the lawyer needs to identify, assess and manage any risk associated with the file.

The following tips will help lawyers conduct effective client interviews that elicit the critical information the lawyer needs to competently represent their client.

1. Make intake forms predictive: Intake forms should be designed with the goal of eliciting enough basic information to provide direction for the first client meeting. Questions might include:
   
   
   • Provide a brief history of the relationship.
   • Briefly describe the kinds of things that led to conflict in your relationship and how those conflicts were resolved.
   • On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being “very little” and 10 being “very much”, please indicate:
     • How much personal and financial autonomy you had;
     • How often you felt emotionally abused;
     • How often you felt that your partner was isolating you from family, community or friends;
     • How often you felt spied on or stalked by your partner:
     • How much alcohol or drug abuse took place in your home;
       
       
2. Keep the focus on procedure, not substantive law: Your first client meeting should be focused first on procedural risk assessment, exploring substantive rights and law only as necessary to conduct a meaningful procedural risk assessment. Practice explaining the purpose of this first meeting to the client, who likely is expecting a substantive consultation instead.
   
   
3. Be well trained to identify known predictors of risk and how to use screening tools.
   
   
4. Make no assumptions based on intake form information, client’s social or community status, appearance, race, faith, role or income. Take every client through the same process at the first meeting and do not apologize for or minimize the importance of the questions being asked.
   
   
5. Complete a formal risk assessment at the first meeting: use a risk assessment tool to help you ask questions that will help you make an assessment that predicts the risk of harm coming to the client, the client’s family, your or your staff as a result of steps you may initiate during your representation of this client.
   
   
6. Anticipate your client’s shame, guilt, embarrassment, resistance and/or anger. Clients are often not expecting the questions you will be asking them. They may not be prepared and may react emotionally. Be prepared to explain the purpose of the questions in multiple ways throughout the interview with the goal of reassuring the client in a trauma informed manner that neither they nor their partner are being judged or blamed. Organize and plan your meeting to allow time for client resistance as they process what you are asking of them.
   
   
7. The tool is only a tool. It does not replace training, knowledge, skill and experience.
   
   
8. Be tenacious and diligent. Do not simply follow a ‘checklist’ of screening questions. If a client gives a vague response, or avoids a full response, or appears hesitant or uncomfortable, find a gentle way to circle back and follow up. Specifics are important.
   
   
9. Safety plan in the moment. Research shows that at-risk clients want supportive referrals and safety plan information from their lawyers. Be prepared to provide the client with safety planning resources and referrals —there and then. Explain the risk you have identified by reviewing the client’s answers to the predictive questions. Help the client understand the significance of your risk assessment and the steps you are asking them to take to respond to that assessment. Be prepared to walk the client through the steps involved in obtaining a safety plan. Know where to refer the client if they need additional support or help. While leaving a violent relationship is often the safest step for a survivor of intimate partner violence to take, it is in leaving without a safety plan that the majority of women are harmed or killed.
   
   
10. Re-screen and continuously update your risk assessment. Risk evolves with every step you or your client takes.
    
    

The purpose of a procedural risk assessment is to identify the steps the lawyer and client can take to empower the client to participate fully and safely in the family law process.

Once a risk assessment is made, the lawyer can discuss procedural steps in the file, and how they might be undertaken in the safest possible way. This includes ensuring the client has secured a responsive safety plan; that the lawyer is informed about its details; and that the lawyer considers safety in each step of the file, such as sending correspondence to the other party, whether or how to litigate, making decisions about what to propose as settlement terms, how to conduct settlement meetings etc.

Hilary Linton is a senior family lawyer, mediator, parenting coordinator and arbitrator. She founded Riverdale Mediation after litigating family and civil matters for 14 years including as a partner in a Toronto boutique law firm. Riverdale’s team of highly skilled family mediators, parenting coordinators and arbitrators resolve high conflict and challenging disputes. Riverdale is also internationally known for its high calibre online training programs in Family Dispute Resolution.