Frequently Asked Questions
1. How should I make the decision to hire a lawyer?
First and foremost, individuals who have suffered a serious or life-changing injury, lost a loved one, or otherwise been innocently harmed should seek out qualified legal advice and obtain the services of an experienced and capable trial lawyer. Making a good decision about who will represent you or your loved one is very important.
Although there is no simple answer to the question of how to best make the decision to hire a lawyer, I do have some suggestions:
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1. How should I make the decision to hire a lawyer?
First and foremost, individuals who have suffered a serious or life-changing injury, lost a loved one, or otherwise been innocently harmed should seek out qualified legal advice and obtain the services of an experienced and capable trial lawyer. Making a good decision about who will represent you or your loved one is very important.
Although there is no simple answer to the question of how to best make the decision to hire a lawyer, I do have some suggestions:
- Ask people you trust for recommendations.
- Undertake research to identify highly competent lawyers who have experience.in similar cases.
- Plan to actually meet with each lawyer being considered. Candidly discuss your situation in detail and ask questions about his or her ideas to address your situation and, very importantly, what specific steps will be taken and how quickly such steps will be taken. You need to know what to expect if you hire that lawyer.
- If the lawyer that you are considering is in a firm with other lawyers, be sure to clarify exactly who will actually be providing services to you. If it may be the young and inexperienced associate down the hall or whoever in the firm happens to be available at any given point in your case, you may want to reconsider.
- Discuss the type of communication you should routinely expect to receive from the lawyer, such as the frequency of updates and status reports, as well as the type of decisions you should expect to participation in making. Unfortunately, many lawyers simply do not place much value on on-going communications with their clients.
- Be sure to understand the fee arrangements being proposed by the lawyer and carefully read over any written agreement or other documents before signing them.
- If a lawyer declines your representation because, for example, he or she is too busy, ask for other suggestions and recommendations. Most experienced and competent lawyers stay very busy, but are well-acquainted with other lawyers who would might be able to provide excellent services to you.
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