By Tom Jensen | ClientPing Blog
You know no-shows are a problem. You've felt the frustration — the blocked hour with nothing to show for it, the prep work that went nowhere, the gap in your day that could've been a paying client.
But have you actually done the math?
Most solo and small-firm attorneys haven't. The cost of a missed appointment feels abstract until you put a number on it. Once you do, it stops feeling like a minor annoyance and starts looking like one of the biggest profit leaks in your practice.
Let's put a number on it.
When a client doesn't show up, you don't just lose the appointment — you lose the revenue attached to it. For most attorneys, that breaks down like this:
If your hourly rate is $250 and the average appointment runs an hour, that's $250 gone. Not deferred — gone. That slot is dead time. You can't bill for it, and you can't get it back.
You probably spent 10–20 minutes reviewing the file, pulling documents, or prepping notes before the appointment. At your hourly rate, that's another $40–$80 in unbillable time.
Here's the part most attorneys miss: that slot could've gone to someone else. A new consultation, a follow-up with an existing client, or even billable work on another case. When you block time for a no-show, you're turning away revenue twice — once for the missed appointment and once for the work you could've done instead.
If you have a receptionist, paralegal, or assistant who confirmed the appointment, prepared paperwork, or set up a meeting room, their time is wasted too. Even at $20/hour, that adds up across multiple no-shows per week.
No-shows create a ripple. You might overbook to compensate (stressing your schedule). You might underbook to protect yourself (leaving money on the table). Either way, you're making scheduling decisions based on unreliability instead of demand.
A conservative estimate: each no-show costs 1.5–2× your hourly rate when you factor in prep, opportunity cost, and overhead.
No-show rates vary significantly by practice area, and it's worth understanding where your specialty falls:
| Practice Area | Typical No-Show Rate | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | 15–25% | Clients facing charges are often anxious, chaotic, or in denial |
| Family Law | 15–20% | Emotional cases lead to avoidance; contested matters especially |
| Immigration | 15–25% | Language barriers, transportation issues, fear of legal system |
| Personal Injury | 10–15% | Less urgency after initial filing; clients feel "it's handled" |
| Estate Planning | 10–15% | Low urgency — "I'll get to it eventually" mentality |
| Business/Corporate | 5–10% | Professional clients, higher stakes, better follow-through |
If you're in a high-no-show practice area and you're not actively managing it, you're almost certainly leaving five figures per year on the table.
No-shows don't just cost you money today. They compound:
Month 1: You lose a few appointments. Annoying, but manageable.
Month 3: You start overbooking to compensate. Now when everyone does show up, you're scrambling.
Month 6: Your schedule is unpredictable. You can't reliably plan your week. Staff time gets wasted. You feel busier than you should for the revenue you're generating.
Year 1: You've lost $15,000–$50,000+ in revenue. That's a paralegal salary. That's your marketing budget. That's your vacation.
The firms that solve this problem early don't just save money — they run more predictable, less stressful practices.
We've covered the "why" extensively in our guide to reducing no-shows at your law firm. Here's the short version:
This is the single highest-impact change you can make. Automated SMS reminders reduce no-shows by 50–80% across industries, and legal is no exception. Text messages have a 98% open rate — compared to ~20% for email — and most people read them within 3 minutes.
The key is timing:
When a client needs to change their appointment, make it effortless. If rescheduling requires a phone call during business hours, many clients will just no-show instead. A link in the reminder text that lets them pick a new time takes 30 seconds and saves you an empty slot.
Don't just remind — ask for confirmation. A simple "Reply C to confirm or R to reschedule" gives you advance notice of who's actually coming. If someone doesn't confirm, you can reach out proactively or open that slot for someone else.
The longer the gap between booking and appointment, the higher the no-show risk. If you're scheduling consultations 3–4 weeks out, consider keeping a few slots open each week for shorter-notice bookings.
Let's make this concrete. Say you're a solo family law attorney billing $275/hour, and you average 4 no-shows per week.
Without reminders:
With automated reminders (80% reduction):
The cost of a reminder system? Typically $50–$150/month. That's a 35–100× return on investment.
There aren't many problems in a law practice where a $100/month tool saves you $60,000+ per year. This is one of them.
For solo and small-firm attorneys, the average no-show costs between $300 and $600 when you account for the billable hour lost, prep time wasted, and the opportunity cost of the empty slot. At a typical billing rate of $250–$350/hour, even 2–3 no-shows per week adds up to $30,000–$90,000 in annual lost revenue.
Most law firms experience a no-show rate between 10% and 20%, though this varies significantly by practice area. Criminal defense, immigration, and family law practices tend to see higher rates (15–25%), while corporate and business law firms typically see lower rates (5–10%).
Yes. Automated text reminders consistently reduce no-show rates by 50–80% across professional services. Text messages have a 98% open rate and are typically read within minutes. The combination of a 48-hour advance reminder and a 2-hour same-day reminder is the most effective approach.
Appointment reminders are generally considered administrative communications, not solicitation. They don't contain legal advice or case-specific information. That said, best practice is to obtain client consent for text communications during intake. Most bar associations distinguish between administrative texts (reminders, scheduling) and substantive legal communication.
Multiply your effective hourly rate by 1.5 (to account for prep and opportunity cost), then multiply by your average number of no-shows per week, then multiply by 50 (working weeks per year). For example: $250/hour × 1.5 × 3 no-shows/week × 50 weeks = $56,250/year.
Every week you operate without a solution, you're losing money that's never coming back. The math is straightforward, and the fix is simpler than you'd expect.
ClientPing was built specifically for solo and small-firm attorneys who are tired of losing revenue to no-shows. Automated text and email reminders, one-tap confirmation, easy rescheduling — set it up once and let it run.
No credit card required. Takes about 5 minutes to connect your calendar.
Tom Jensen is the founder of ClientPing, an appointment reminder platform for law firms. He's spent the last several years helping solo attorneys build more predictable, profitable practices.
