Choosing the Right Lawyer for the Job
An event happens in your life and the effects are substantial,
perhaps even potentially catastrophic in terms of the financial
ripple effect and the reduction in your daily quality of
life---what do you do? In many scenarios (injuries, accidents,
instances of unfair treatment, occurrences of theft and fraud,
etc), one of your first thoughts will be to get a lawyer,
naturally. But where do you get a lawyer and how do you go about
choosing the right lawyer?
Here's how most people do it: 1. get a referral from a friend,
neighbor, or relative who has experienced a similar situation
and has also required the services of a lawyer; 2. look in the
yellow pages under a plethora of attorney categories; 3. look
online.
And all of these methods can work quite nicely. However, if
you've ever had to look for an attorney to handle a particular
matter, you may have learned that being able to contact an
attorney is not quite the same as being able to find the right
attorney for what you need (this precludes traffic, bankruptcy,
and wills and estates attorneys, of course---call any one of
them and they can generally service your needs).
What constitutes the right attorney and, conversely, what does
not? Think of this in terms of finding the right car mechanic.
If you own a 1974 VW Beetle, it may not be sufficient to simply
take your car to a general mechanic because even a certified
automotive mechanic may have little to no experience working on
"bugs". What you'd probably want, instead, is a mechanic who
specializes in volkswagons and not just volkswagons, but vintage
VWs.
When it comes to choosing the right attorney, you definitely
want a specialist. But more than that, you want a legal
representative who embodies the right characteristics that will
allow you to comfortably work with him, or her. What are those
characteristics? They can include a willingness and desire to
keep you informed (i.e., do they keep you updated and do they
bother to return your phone calls) and a solid expertise in
their practice area (i.e. have they been practicing in your
needed area of specialty for one year, or ten years---experience
can make a tremendous difference). However, having said all
this, choosing the right attorney for your particular needs may
also draw demands from the individual seeking legal help as
well.
Here's a good example. A disabled individual who is pursuing a
social security disability or ssi claim may ultimately require
the services of a disability attorney; however, that same
individual will be better qualified to select the right legal
advocate if they possess some understanding of how the process
works (a disability claimant, in this example, would probably
wish to "bone up" on how SSD works by referring to either the Nosscr Social Security
Disability Page or the Secrets
Social Security SSI FAQ page.
And, certainly, selecting the right attorney for your need does
not, or should not, stop with gaining a certain knowledge of the
legal arena into which you are about to tread. Sometimes, in
fact many times, finding the right representative can boil down
to getting the "right feel" that emanates from a gut instinct
level and only comes from actually meeting your possible future
lawyer. So, to find the right attorney for what you need, look
in the right sources, look for experience, and learn at least a
little about the issues that are at hand for you. But, consider
personally meeting your prospective lawyer before retaining him,
versus making your decision based solely on a phone call.