Before You Fire That Client: What the Bailey Case Teaches Us
This case is a reminder that WHY you terminate matters as much as how you do it.
“People’s beliefs are protected. Their behavior is not.”
There’s a story making its rounds in the veterinary and legal worlds right now: A UK court just ruled that a veterinary practice unlawfully discriminated against a client, Ms. Bailey, when they banned her from returning, partly because of her gender-critical beliefs. She’s a friend of J.K. Rowling, and the practice knew it. They said it was about her behavior, but the court found the evidence didn’t support that alone.
You might be thinking, “Well, that’s the UK. Different laws. Different systems.” Or “J.K. Rowling… I can’t even with that.” But here’s why this matters to us in a HUGE way, right now, in veterinary medicine:
We have a blind spot in our profession around terminating client relationships. We tell ourselves and each other we need to protect our teams. We share scripts and “ you’re fired” letters for letting go of abusive clients in our online colleague groups. But if we’re honest, most practices don’t have clear, written policies around a lot of things and termination of clients is absolutely one of them that is few and far between. Many practices let it slide for too long, or they act in the heat of the moment, scribbling notes in the record, sending things certified mail and hoping it’s enough.
It’s not enough. Courts ruled that way already in this case and it has set a precedent. This case is a reminder that WHY you terminate matters as much as how you do it. We can’t afford to be sloppy or inconsistent, not if we want to protect our teams and our practices.
Because here’s the tricky part: people’s beliefs are protected. Their behavior is not. If we are not clear, consistent, and well-documented about separating those two things, we open ourselves up to challenges that can drain energy, money, and trust.
This doesn’t mean we stop protecting our teams. Quite the opposite. It just means we do it better. We do it smarter. And we think it through.
It means we take the time to write down:
What we consider unacceptable behavior. We need to be able to give clear, concrete examples of what exactly happened. I always tell my team “I’m closing my eyes (and then I physically do it!) - now describe it to me so I can see it clearly.”
How we will document incidents. Besides “What does your handbook say?”, my most parroted phrase to friends and colleagues is “If it’s not in the chart, it didn’t actually happen.” We need to write things down related to clients and patients in detail in a professional way. Too often we leave the client stuff out for fear of how it might be read. We can document in a way that is professional and pertains to the patient so it stays chart relevant.
What our process will be when a client crosses the line. I can count on probably 2 hands the number of times in 22 years that I’ve had to terminate a client and they didn’t leave the situation calmly and rationally, even if they didn’t agree. That is because I worked hard to establish clear guidelines and boundaries that were shared with the team AND our clients around what was acceptable, what was not and what the consequences of violations in behavior would look like.
It means we talk about it with our teams so everyone knows the policy and knows they will be supported when they feel unsafe or disrespected and how that support will look.
It means we practice what we say we value: kindness, clarity, and accountability.
The Bailey case also reminds us that when we say we have a zero-tolerance policy for aggression, we need to define what aggression means. Is it cursing at a receptionist? Is it yelling? Is it threatening physical harm? We need to be clear. We need to be consistent. We need to treat like situations alike, regardless of who the client is or what they believe.
We are living in a world where beliefs are visible and polarizing. Clients come into our lobbies with their identities, convictions, and social media feeds. Our team members do too. It is our responsibility as leaders to protect the safety and psychological wellbeing of our teams, while also upholding the legal and ethical boundaries of our practice.
It’s a tightrope, but it’s one we need to learn to walk.
The bottom line is this: Don’t wait for a moment of crisis to figure out your client termination process. Don’t wait until your team is burned out from repeated encounters with a client whose behavior is consistently toxic. Don’t wait until you’re worried about legal action to check if your policies will hold up.
If you don’t have a clear policy, now is the time to write one. If your team hasn’t talked about it, now is the time to start the conversation. If you haven’t documented problematic client interactions, start doing it as soon as your team is trained on where and how to document!
We can protect our teams. We can protect our values. We can protect our practices. We just need to do it with heart and mind aligned so we act with intention.
💗 Stephanie