The duty in context
Diligence and timeliness practice
The lawyer must deliver services diligently and as promptly as reasonably possible and must promptly warn the client if work cannot be completed in time.
How the codes express this duty
E&W Solicitors SRA Principles & Code CCS 3.2 strong 208 cases
3.2 You ensure that the service you provide to clients is competent and delivered in a timely manner.
SRA Code of Conduct for Solicitors, RELs and RFLs · 2019 · archived copy · official source ↗
E&W Barristers BSB Handbook rC18; gC38.4 strong 3 cases
rC18 Your duty to provide a competent standard of work and service to each client (CD7) includes a duty to inform your professional client, or your client ... if: .1 it becomes apparent to you that you will not be able to carry out the instructions within the time requested ...; or .2 there is an appreciable risk that you may not be able to undertake the instructions.
BSB Handbook · current · archived copy · official source ↗
Cayman Islands Legal Services Code 2026 R.4.4 strong
An attorney-at-law shall attend to all client affairs with diligence and answer all correspondence within the timescales agreed with the client or, if no such timescales have been agreed, within a reasonable time.
Cayman Islands Legal Services Code of Professional Conduct · 2026 · archived copy
AU Solicitors Solicitors' Conduct Rules Rule 4.1.3 strong 49 cases
A solicitor must also:... 4.1.3 deliver legal services competently, diligently and as promptly as reasonably possible.
Australian Solicitors' Conduct Rules · 2015 (June 2026 compilation) · archived copy · official source ↗
AU Barristers Uniform Barristers Rules rr56,105 strong 21 cases
A barrister: (a) must seek to ensure that the barrister does work which the barrister is briefed to do in sufficient time to enable compliance with orders, directions, Rules or practice notes of the court; and (b) if the barrister has reasonable grounds to believe that the barrister may not complete any such work on time must promptly inform the instructing solicitor or the client.
Legal Profession Uniform Conduct (Barristers) Rules · 2015 (as amended 14 May 2025) · archived copy · official source ↗
IE Solicitors Law Society Guide Ch2 — Proper standard of legal services: General; Failure to reply to letters partial 31 cases
They should treat clients with respect and carry out instructions in a courteous and professional manner... A solicitor should reply to correspondence and should return phone calls in a timely manner.
Solicitor's Guide to Professional Conduct (Law Society of Ireland) · 4th ed. (2022) · archived copy · official source ↗
IE Barristers Bar Code of Conduct Rule 2.13; Rule 3.19 strong 31 cases
It is the duty of Barristers at all times to ensure that their practice is efficiently and properly administered and, in particular, they must take all reasonable and practicable steps to ensure that their Court engagements are properly fulfilled.
Code of Conduct for the Bar of Ireland · 2024 · archived copy · official source ↗
JM Attorneys Canons of Professional Ethics Canon IV(r); Canon IV(s) strong 137 cases
An Attorney shall deal with his client's business with all due expedition ... [IV(s)] In the performance of his duties an Attorney shall not act with inexcusable or deplorable negligence or neglect.
Legal Profession (Canons of Professional Ethics) Rules · 1978 (principal) · archived copy · official source ↗
JE Lawyers Law Society of Jersey Code R.1.5 strong
Members shall attend to all client affairs with diligence and answer all correspondence within the timescales agreed with the client or, if no such timescales have been agreed, within a reasonable time.
Law Society of Jersey Code of Conduct · 1 January 2017 · archived copy · official source ↗
ON Lawyers LSO Rules of Prof. Conduct r 3.2-1; r 3.1-1(e) strong
3.2-1 ... The quality of service required of a lawyer is service that is competent, timely, conscientious, diligent, efficient and civil. [3.1-1(e): performing all functions conscientiously, diligently, and in a timely and cost-effective manner. 3.1-2 cmt 12: a lawyer should make every effort to provide timely service to the client ... If the lawyer can reasonably foresee undue delay ... the client should be so informed.]
Law Society of Ontario — Rules of Professional Conduct · current · archived copy · official source ↗
BC Lawyers BC Code r 3.2-1, commentary [4] strong 6 cases
A lawyer should ensure that matters are attended to within a reasonable time frame. If the lawyer can reasonably foresee undue delay in providing advice or services, the lawyer has a duty to so inform the client, so that the client can make an informed choice about his or her options, such as whether to retain new counsel.
Code of Professional Conduct for British Columbia (BC Code) · 2017 · archived copy · official source ↗
NZ Lawyers Conduct & Client Care Rules r 3 / r 3.3 strong
In providing regulated services to a client, a lawyer must always act competently and in a timely manner consistent with the terms of the retainer ... A lawyer must inform the client if there are any material and unexpected delays in a matter.
Lawyers and Conveyancers Act (Lawyers: Conduct and Client Care) Rules 2008 · SR 2008/214 · archived copy · official source ↗
SCO Solicitors LSS Standards of Conduct B1.10 partial 11 cases
Competence, diligence and appropriate skills
Law Society of Scotland — Practice Rules 2011, Rule B1 (Standards of Conduct) · 2011 · archived copy · official source ↗
SG Lawyers Professional Conduct Rules 2015 r 5 (Honesty, competence and diligence) strong 8 cases
5 Honesty, competence and diligence
Legal Profession (Professional Conduct) Rules 2015 · 2015 · archived copy · official source ↗
HK Solicitors Solicitors' Guide Principle 6.01(b) / Principle 5.12 strong
A solicitor must serve his client in a conscientious, diligent, prompt and efficient manner. ... A solicitor who has accepted instructions on behalf of a client is bound to carry out those instructions with diligence and must exercise reasonable care and skill.
Hong Kong Solicitors' Guide to Professional Conduct (Volume 1) · current · archived copy · official source ↗
HK Barristers Bar Code of Conduct para 10.5 strong
A practising barrister must in all his professional activities act promptly, conscientiously and diligently and with reasonable competence and must take all reasonable and practicable steps to ensure that professional engagements are fulfilled punctually.
Code of Conduct of the Bar of the Hong Kong SAR · 2018 · archived copy · official source ↗
Cases dealing with this duty
454 decisions · link basis: found breached = a tribunal finding; rule cited = the mapped provision is cited in the decision; text match = high-precision text pattern
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Beriston Bryan
Fined | Disciplinary Committee decision delivered May 17, 2008. View PDF DECISION OF THE DISCIPLINARY COMMITTEE OF THE GENERAL LEGAL COUNCIL COMPLAINT No. 44/2006 IN THE MATTER of the complaint by Carl Leadbeater agains…
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Antonnette Haughton Cardenas
Deferred (Decision Pending Attorney Response) | Disciplinary Committee decision delivered April 01, 2008. View PDF DECISION OF THE DISCIPLINARY COMMITTEE OF THE GENERAL LEGAL COUNCIL COMPLAINT No. 167/2003 IN THE MATTER…
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David Coleman and 22 Others
Breaches, Client Money, Delays, Failures, Solicitors' Accounts Rules, Others
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Thomas Ofordire Egole
Breaches, Failures, Solicitors' Accounts Rules, Others
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Eric Ian Holland
Client Money, Failures, Solicitors' Accounts Rules
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John Robert Peter Middleton
Breaches, Failures, Solicitors' Accounts Rules, Others
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Paul Thomas Daniels
Breaches, Client Money, Failures, Solicitors' Accounts Rules
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Mojisola Adetokunbo Adesola Kareem
Breaches, Client Money, Failures, Solicitors' Accounts Rules
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Richard John Swinburn
Breaches, Client Money, Failures, Solicitors' Accounts Rules, Others
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S Dhama & Others
Breaches, Client Money, Delays, Failures, Solicitors' Accounts Rules, Others
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William White
Breaches, Delays, Others
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C F Farrell
Breaches, Client Money, Failures, Solicitors' Accounts Rules, Others
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Mark Laurence Urding
Client Money, Failures, Others
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Jeffrey Helge Hansen
Delays, Failures, Others
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Derek John Leonard
Breaches, Client Money, Failures, Solicitors' Accounts Rules, Others
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Viresh Patel
Breaches, Delays, Failures, Solicitors' Accounts Rules, Others
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James Michael Hill
Breaches, Client Money, Failures, Solicitors' Accounts Rules, Others
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Justin Mari Paul Michael Coningsby Culver
Breaches, Delays, Failures, Others
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Thomas William John Loco
Client Money, Failures, Others
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Stephen Benedict John Barth & Others
Breaches, Client Money, Delays, Failures, Solicitors' Accounts Rules, Others
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Michael A. Williams
Fined | Disciplinary Committee decision delivered September 29, 2007. View PDF DECISION OF THE DISCIPLINARY COMMITTEE OF THE GENERAL LEGAL COUNCIL Complaint #216/2001 IN THE MATTER of the Complaint by ARNOLD BAKER again…
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DAVID ERNEST ELEY
Struck Off the Roll of Practitioners
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Russell Galt WALTERS
Guilty of professional misconduct on 7 charges.
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BRIAN CHARLES GLUESTEIN
Unprofessional Conduct
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Shaun A. Reynolds
Struck off, Restitution Ordered | Disciplinary Committee decision delivered March 31, 2007. View PDF DECISION OF THE DISCIPLINARY COMMITTEE OF THE GENERAL LEGAL COUNCILCOMPLAINT No.28 of 2001 BETWEEN ALFRED WILLIAMS COM…
Duty classification does not yet cover every jurisdiction (Ontario, New Zealand and Singapore decisions are indexed but not yet duty-classified), so counts here understate those corpora.