5 Things to Look for When Hiring a Lawyer
Hiring an attorney is not a job that you should take lightly. There are so many things that can happen that you need representation for and if you don’t have a good attorney, that could really change the course of your life. If something serious has happened to you and you need a top notch lawyer, like a DUI attorney or a criminal defense lawyer, then this especially applies to you. Here are a few things that you should look for when hiring a lawyer to represent you in court.
They meet with you in person during your initial interview.
It is a common practice for some law firms to send a legal aid or a paralegal to meet with new clients. While this is understandable when the law firm is busy and all the lawyers are in court, it always portrays the appearance that they don’t really care about new clients. If you are setting up your free consultation with the law firm to decide if you want to hire them or not, the law firm that really wants and will appreciate your business, will send an actual lawyer to meet with you.
They don’t cut you off, patronize you or act shocked at your decisions.
Lawyers have a lot of information. DUI attorneys have sat through so many stories of drinking and driving, family law attorneys have heard every reason under the sun why someone wants to get divorced. However, you don’t want an attorney that is so cynical that they don’t care about personal situations anymore. If they patronize you or act like they are surprised at your choices, then you may not want them as your attorney. You need a lawyer that believes in you and thinks you can come out of this on top.
They have experience and wins in the field of your situation.
There are lawyers the specialize in certain areas and then there are even more specific lawyers. For example, you could be dealing with the criminal defense division of the law firm and initially meet with a car accident attorney, but once they hear your story, they may assign a DUI attorney to you, knowing that this is where your problems are going to lie. The attorney that you get should have quite a few won cases under their belt that are similar to yours.
They listen as well as talk to you and give you advice.
You’ll be getting plenty of legal advice throughout the process; in the beginning, the lawyer needs to hear you out. If you are sitting in your initial interview, they need to be trying to impress you. They should be listening and taking in all the information that you are giving them in order to make an informed decision regarding taking on your case. If they don’t listen to you in your first inter view, you can be sure that they are going to be listening in the following meetings and may even end up surprised in court because they never got all the information from you that the needed.
They give you their personal contact information.
Don’t settle for a lawyer that will not let you contact them directly. If you ask how you can get in contact with them and they direct you to their legal assistant or their paralegal, that’s not a good sign. They should give you their direct office line. They don’t need to give you their home number or anything like that but an office number with a direct extension or a business cell phone number that they always have with them will suffice.
Even if you are going to need a different kind of lawyer, like a family lawyer or something a little less severe than a DUI attorney, you’ll still need to make sure that these five things are in place. They are pretty general, across the board traits that all lawyers should have or at least strive to have. If you find a lawyer that doesn’t even try to adhere to these tips, then you can pretty much assume that they are not going to be the type of lawyer that you need by your side while you are going through your situation.
