When you need assistance with legal help, finding a reputable attorney in your area is a necessity. However, if you’re not familiar with any of the lawyers in your area, this could prove difficult to do at first. It’s very common to jump online and search for “the top attorneys in your area”. This will likely turn up a plethora of results that can be mind-boggling it first.
You don’t just want to pick up the phone and call the first attorney that you find on your list. Instead, you want to understand what sort of qualities you’re looking for in a top-performing attorney. We’re going to help you out and share our list of the top qualities that you want to look for when hiring your next lawyer.
Good Reviews
When you’re searching for a new attorney online, there are many review sites that you can take a look at it. It’s always advisable to look at these review sites to see what past clients have to say about these lawyers. When you decide to contact a lawyer, they should be able to give you a roster of their former clients that you can contact. A successful attorney takes the time to build up a successful client relationship. They should have no trouble supplying you with information about their past clients so that you can get a feel for how their service is.
When going through the online reviews, you’ll want to keep an eye out for any reviews that sound similar in nature. Many times, when a person has a problem with a certain attorney, that problem is something that multiple people have. For example, if you read multiple reviews and they hint at the fact that the attorney doesn’t return their phone calls, it’s likely that you’re going to experience that same problem with that lawyer. That information should give you enough insight for you to realize that you’ll want to hire somebody else.
Pay Attention To Their Practice Area
When you’re looking for an attorney, it’s important that you find one who specializes in the specific area that you need help with. For example, a divorce or family law lawyer will be beneficial to helping you with your divorce proceedings. You don’t want to hire a business lawyer to help you with your divorce as they are not specialized in that area. When searching online for a new attorney, you should be able to get a feel for where the practice area is based on their name or their website.
They’re Local
You don’t want to fall into the pitfall of finding a lawyer that doesn’t have a location in your physical area. Many times, lawyers will advertise to many surrounding areas. This is very common among bigger law firms. You should avoid these firms as you don’t want to hire a lawyer that is not within your specific area. Hiring a lawyer outside of your area will require that you travel to meet with them and end up costing you more money in the long run.
When searching online for your lawyer, you should be sure to put in your city or town alongside your search term. Taking a quick look at the map listings or the top search engine results should reveal companies in your local area. When looking at their website, make sure that they do have a location that is near your specific city or town.
Meet With A Couple
Before you can make an informed decision about which lawyer you want to go with it, you want to meet with them during an initial consultation. It’s a good idea to meet with a couple of attorneys to get a feel for how they want to move forward with your case. During this initial consultation, you’ll get to understand how they create their relationship with you. You should feel as if the lawyer is listening to your concerns and answering them. If they brush off your questions or don’t give you a direct answer, it’s an indication that they are a lawyer that you won’t want to work with.
When having your initial sit-down consultation, there are many things that you want to ask the lawyer. Some of the best questions to ask include what their specialties are, how many years they have been practicing, what their success rate is, what their pricing is, and any other questions that are on the top of your mind. You want to make sure that you feel confident in the lawyer and comfortable discussing your case with them.
