You know the situation. You have a client on your mobile phone while you walk into the courthouse. Meanwhile, the call at the office just transferred over to voicemail. No one was there to answer.

Was it just one call? Maybe two? How many missed calls was it today?

It’s a challenge every solo lawyer faces. The daily grind includes missed calls because you are a team of one. When you return those calls, the game of “phone tag” typically begins.

So, how much is a missed phone call worth?

The Laffey Matrix, first published in 1982 and updated annually, estimates the minimum hourly billing rate for any attorney should be about $328.

Now think about it. Obviously, not all cases are created equal. The same goes for potential client calls. Some of those calls will end up with a client retaining your services. Some will not.

Perhaps you cannot help the individual on the other line, so you refer them to another attorney.

Now for those callers who end up becoming a client, you may be able to help them in a single meeting. Perhaps a third of the calls you receive translate into a client using you for a particular case. There is a wide range of values here.

Go back to that $328 per annual sum. Let’s use a conservative number of $175 for the purpose of the question: How much is a missed call worth?

That caller may need a review of a contract or an uncontested divorce or legal help that equals only a few billable hours or a basic fee of a few hundred dollars. On the other side, this may be a personal injury case.

A survey by the Court Statistics Project broke down billable costs for automobile tort cases. When you factor in case initiation, discovery, settlement, pre-trial, trial and post disposition, the number hits $13,650.

You never know what’s on the other end of the line when that call slips away to voicemail.

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Adapted from an article first published as “How Much Is A Missed Call Worth?” on the LexTalx: The Business Side of Law blog.