Hiring a Lawyer

Video Transcript Below: Selecting an attorney involves many different questions to ask. Whether you’re hiring an attorney for a civil, criminal or other type of matter, it’s very important to address these things. 1) Make sure that the attorney you’re meeting with is the one that’s going to be handling your case. 2) Find out from this attorney what his/her experience is in this particular area. Ask the tough questions. Find out specifically if they have handled cases very similar to yours. Also, find out their hourly rate; if there’s a difference between out of Court and in Court; paralegal or administrative costs. 3) Further, another important question is accessibility. Does that attorney have a policy about returning phone calls? I am very adamant that phone calls should be returned the same day unless I’m out of the office. Many attorneys have a 24 hour policy. Emails that’s very important as well — if you can communicate with the attorney by email, find out that attorney’s accessibility. 4) Additional things to find out are referrals or testimonials. Ask the attorney for names of other clients who have had similar cases that you can speak with and get feedback from those clients as well as to what their experience was like in dealing with the attorney. It’s one thing when you walk into an attorney’s office and meet with a named partner it’s another if you’re handed off to a lower level associate. So it’s very important that you establish in that first meeting which attorney’s going to be handling your case and you want to meet with that attorney to find out that attorney’s experience and determine if it’s a good fit for you. It’s very important because your case is going to involve a lot of one on one communication with the attorney — the attorney is going to be your advocate and you want to make sure that you have a good fit with that attorney.]]>