Choosing a Lawyer: Avoiding the Pitfalls and Selecting the Right Lawyer for Your Needs – Part 7

There is no sure-fire method for selecting legal counsel. The decision often depends on many intangible factors that vary from person to person, and case to case. But that is probably as it should be, for the decision to hire a lawyer is intensely personal.

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You are trusting the attorney with your legal affairs, which may involve some of the most intimate aspects of your life. In the end, you should devote at least as much attention to picking the right lawyer as you would to picking out the right car.

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You can, after all, ride around quite nicely in a car that is not quite the color you wanted, or has less trim that you would have preferred. But entrusting your affairs to the wrong lawyer can prove disastrous to your legal well-being...and quite expensive, besides.

Jeffrey Caminsky, a veteran public prosecutor in Michigan, specializes in the appellate practice of criminal law and writes on a wide range of topics. Both his science fiction adventure novel The Star Dancers, the first volume in the Guardians of Peace (tm) science fiction adventure series, and The Referee’s Survival Guide, a book on soccer officiating, are published by New Alexandria Press, http://www.newalexandriapress.com/.

Choosing a Lawyer: Avoiding the Pitfalls and Selecting the Right Lawyer for Your Needs – Part 6

Questions to Ask:

Many questions arise from the nature of your legal problem, others from the nature of the profession. If you are trying to incorporate your business, for example, you will need answers to different questions that if you are accused of drunk driving.
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But there are some questions that all clients will need to know. And you should not hire someone to act as your lawyer without asking questions—and getting answers—on a number of important, if ordinary topics:

• Fees—that is, how much the attorney will charge for his services

• Costs—that is, how many “other fees” you are likely to be billed for, such as mileage, photocopying, legal filing fees, and the like.

• The precise limits of the lawyer’s duties—and what, if any, responsibilities you will have during the course of the representation.

• Whether the attorney will be handling your case personally...or giving it to an associate after you leave the office.

• And last, but not least—whether they have every been disciplined by the state bar association.

Magic Movers "Moving Quote"

Adversity causes some men to break; others to break records.

William Arthur Ward

Choosing a Lawyer: Avoiding the Pitfalls and Selecting the Right Lawyer for Your Needs – Part 5

Comfortable

Trust is critical to a good attorney-client relationship. Yet your level of “comfort” with an attorney will be highly subjective...and quite possibly very unfair to the lawyer. Still, most people have good instincts about others.

lIf you don’t trust him, you should not entrust him with your legal affairs. And if something about him or his practice strikes you as not quite right, you should probably trust your instincts and go elsewhere.

Magic Movers "Moving Quote"

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.

Albert Einstein

Choosing a Lawyer: Avoiding the Pitfalls and Selecting the Right Lawyer for Your Needs – Part 4

Experienced

Besides being professional and articulate, be sure to pick a lawyer with experience in the field for which you need the help. Some states have specialty certification programs; others do not. But unless your problem is routine paper-processing, an attorney who lacks experience in the field will have a poor feel for the nuances and subtleties of a problem, and may cause avoidable complications while trying to resolve things to your satisfaction.

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A brilliant securities lawyer is likely to founder if called upon to defend a murder case; by contrast, the best courtroom defense lawyer is likely to be lost if called upon to handle a tax matter in front of the tax department.
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You should also find out about the lawyer’s professional credentials, especially if your prospective attorney does not bring it up himself during conversation. Lawyers are bound by attorney-client privilege not to reveal anything about the legal affairs of another client. That does not prevent them from telling you about other cases they have worked on, or about their professional background.

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Remember, though, that the law school they attended is usually less important than the kind of work they have done since. After all, very fine lawyers come from every law school in the country, and Yale and Harvard have produced their share of fools. Attending Harvard assures you that they got good grades in college, and are very bright.

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It says nothing about their professional ethics, and is no guarantee that they have an ounce of common sense.

Magic Movers "Moving Quote"

I live to laugh, and I laugh to live.

Milton Berle