Useable trail - fail to record advice at your peril

Making file notes and writing letters is a well-worn risk management message for practitioners. Creating that useable trail is as much a part of the job as providing advice. We regularly see claims where no file note is made or the practitioner has kept some file notes, but they do not contain the relevant advice given or contain a cryptic ‘note to self’ which could be interpreted very differently by someone else at a later date.