Lawyers Work For You

Lawyers work for you when you are in need of legal representation. I think allot of people get intimidated when they actually hire a lawyer for whatever situation they paid the lawyer for. The legal jargon is crazy and is from the stone age days, but their are many websites and free information available on the internet, here on hubpages via various avenues and links for people to educate themselves before they head off to the lawyers office. Before you meet with a lawyer, see which lawyer will offer you a free consultation over the phone. All the lawyers I have dealt with have had 30min free consultation over the phone so I can try to get some basic questions answered which helped me gauge how much interest the current lawyer had in my case. As long as the consultation is free its ok to call around to various lawyers in your city to see if you get the same answer. If the answers vary, then you should change a couple of your questions up to see if the same answer results. After you have a good understanding of your situation and the outcome that might happen after talking to a few lawyers, then this is a good time to visit the lawyer in person.

Again understand that the lawyer you are interviewing with your questions will work for you. You have some hard earned money that is about to be turned over to this person to pay for part of your case. You want to and need to make sure that you get every dollar, every penny's worth out of that retainer that you will be required to pay. Ask up front what is billed and what is charged for. An example is some lawyers will charge you to respond to each and every email they send to you. I didn't realize this until after my first lawyer sent me an itemized billing after my case was over explaining how the retainer had be depleted.

Gather all of your questions in one email if your future lawyer charges for email responses and make sure they lawyer doesn't send you non urgent email responses. You don't need to know every little detail that has happened in your case. The major important procedural details are worth the email, or better yet, they should actually call you. Allot of times the lawyers assistant can also do the work that would normally be done by the lawyer. The fee charged by the lawyers assistant will usually be smaller so it will be easier on your retainer and future deposits you will have to make. Google or Yahoo, or Bing various lawyers that you are in need of. I prefer lawyers that have actually spent the time and money and effort into their website to actually list what they have accomplished. Some lawyers specialize in Family law, criminal law, real estate law, etc.. etc. Understand that not all lawyers are created equal. You can ask the lawyer for his or hers bar number or lawyer number that will allow you to look up to verify they are bar certified in the state you need to hire them for. I have found that especially online, there are non lawyers who are doing their best to answer lawyer questions. I had a question one time and found out the person was not a lawyer but a law professor. Which is fine and all, but I wanted an actually certified, bar passing lawyer who had experience in the court room.

Wet behind the ears lawyers sometimes can be beneficial, just depends on the situation. With my last stint inside the courthouse I had a seasoned lawyer who knew all the judges and knew her way around the courtroom dance floor. Not all courtrooms are created equal and having a lawyer that has been in and out of various courtrooms and dealt with various judges can be an advantage. New lawyer or old lawyer, make sure the lawyer works for you on your time. Laws change all the time, and new rules come into play that you may not know about. Make sure you have a lawyer that is working for you at all times when it comes to your hard earn money you are paying to represent you.