Legal issues can ruin a person’s life. Involvement in a criminal case or civil lawsuit can cause major anxiety, especially for people who’ve never had any involvement in legal proceedings before. The most important thing to do upon being drawn into a legal case is to seek professional support. An attorney can get you through your case and help you to get the results you desire. This post will explore this topic in more detail, telling you how to find legal guidance and explaining what qualities you need to look for in a lawyer.
1. Level of Experience
The first thing you need to look for in a law firm is experience. Under no circumstances should you ever hire a firm that’s run by attorneys who’ve just qualified. Formal experience is very important. Finding an experienced attorney won’t be difficult. Often, law firms advertise the total amount of compensation they have won in the past for their clients on their websites. The figure advertised on your chosen law firm’s website will give you insight into how much experience they have. For example, the team of Ask Lawyers says they have won over a half billion dollars. You should only work with a law firm that has those kinds of numbers backing them up. If you want to learn more about a specific law firm’s level of experience, reach out to them and ask directly.
2. Reading Customer Feedback
Customer feedback can give you insight into what a law firm is like to work with. A lot of people make the mistake of hiring lawyers without reading their reviews. Bear in mind that it’s not always easy to find reviews on lawyers’ websites. Sometimes you have to go to their Google Review and Trustpilot pages to see what people are saying about them. One of the best things about Google Review and Trustpilot is that the reviews there are vetted for authenticity. Also worth noting is that business owners cannot scrub negative reviews from these sites, so if customers have bad experiences, there’s nothing businesses can do to stop them from posting an account of what happened to them. Reviews posted on law firms’ websites can be wiped. No feedback is not a bad thing as it simply suggests a business has never done anything to upset its clients or customers. If the law firm you want to work with doesn’t have any reviews, this could therefore be a good sign.
3. Professionalism and Manners
Under no circumstances should you work with a law firm that doesn’t prioritize professionalism and good manners above everything else. Fortunately, finding out whether a firm is professional and what the manners of the people who work for it are like is a relatively easy thing to do. Simply get in touch with them via email or over the phone and pay attention to how they triage your case and respond to your inquiries. If they start being rude or treating you like you don’t matter, move on and find another firm. Be sure to leave a review after a negative encounter with a lawyer. This way, you can warn other people about them.
4. Providing Consistent Support
The firm you hire needs to be able to provide consistent support. It is very common for lawyers to seem motivated and engaged when they take a person’s claim on, but after a while, they run out of steam and lose interest. Many people find their lawyers difficult to get hold of after their claim has formally begun and are only able to talk to paralegals and junior attorneys. It can be hard to know whether a lawyer’s going to do this to you or not, so outright ask them what the process is going to be like. It is worth noting though that the lawyer representing you will have other cases they are handling. Make sure you do not pester them every day. Give your lawyer room to breathe so that they can deliver results for their other clients, too. If you do not like a lawyer’s level of engagement, make sure that you tell them this.
5. Offering Contingency Plans
Contingency plans (also known as no-win-no-fee plans) are not commonplace in criminal cases. More often than not, they are only utilized in civil ones. A contingency plan is when you only pay for your legal support after your lawyer has won your case and arranged a compensation settlement for you. Contingency plans take the stress out of lawsuits. You don’t have to worry about payment until after compensation has been guaranteed. If you are planning on filing a civil case, you need to make sure that the lawyer you work with charges a reasonable amount, though. Some law firms ask for up to 50% of the final settlement amount. You can find out what a lawyer’s rates are on their website or by reaching out to them directly. Make sure that you find a lawyer whose services are affordable and reasonably priced.
6. Expertise in Multiple Areas
Finally, going back to experience, a good way to determine whether a law firm is staffed by qualified and experienced attorneys is to take a look at the areas of law in which they specialize. If they offer support for a range of different things, from sexual abuse to personal injury, this is an indicator that a law firm is worth working with. Multiple areas of expertise demonstrate that the attorneys working for a law firm are highly skilled and very knowledgeable. A law firm will openly advertise its areas of expertise, so you shouldn’t have to ask. Any queries or concerns you do have though should be addressed directly to the firm you are interested in working with. Most law firms have live chat services on their websites which you can use for basic enquiries. More complex ones should be sent via email.
If you have found yourself dragged into legal proceedings, you need a lawyer’s support. It is important that you find the most qualified and experienced one that you can. The more experienced a lawyer is, the more likely you are going to be to get the result you desire. You can use the guidance given here to determine a lawyer’s level of experience and suitability.