Factors to Consider When Hiring an Attorney
What to Know When You Need Legal Counseling
Hiring a San Antonio attorney can be an intimidating experience if you’ve never done it before, but it doesn’t have to be. This guide is going to review a few of the things to consider when hiring a lawyer. You should note that this isn’t legal advice and that everyone’s situation will differ, so the right attorney will be different for each person. You should also note that the advice here is meant to be fairly generic; you might apply it to family law, elder law, or even corporate law (in some cases).
Shopping Around
There are a variety of methods you can use to look for a lawyer – do a Google search, and ask friends, family, and co-workers. Once you’ve got a list of lawyers, you’re going to need to start calling. Be sure you’re looking for lawyers who deal with the type of work you need done. It’s very important to understand the difference between civil and criminal law, and exactly what branch of law you need help with.
Once you’ve found lawyers who fit those basic criteria, it’s time to narrow in on the details. First, give them a call to make sure they do free consultations. If they don’t, it’s going to become much more difficult to compare what they have to offer with other attorneys. While you’re on the phone with them, you might ask a couple of other easy-to-answer questions, including how long they’ve been in business, if they can give you references, and what their typical fee structure is. With these quick questions, you can immediately begin to compare prices, experience, and reputation.
Once you’ve had a phone conversation, it’s time to start visiting their law offices. You can get a lot of information visiting a place that you might not get from a quick phone call. How tidy is the attorney’s office? Does the staff there look attentive and happy? Is the location in an area that’s easy enough for you to travel to?
Your face-to-face conversation with the lawyer will bring about a number of other insights. Be sure to prepare a briefing about the work you need done – case details, notices, a brief summary of the narrative surrounding the case. Ask the lawyer how many similar cases they’ve had. You can also ask them about the range of outcomes you might expect from a case like yours, be they financial or otherwise. Find out about all fees and expenses, and get an estimate of how much your attorney’s time is going to cost you, as well as how long they think the case will take (if applicable). You’ll also need to get information about how often you can contact them and their hours of operation.
The Human Factor
Experience, cost, and other technical factors are incredibly important when it comes to choosing an attorney, and they should be weighted heavily. You can’t, however, discount how important it is to have a strong relationship with your attorney. That doesn’t mean you need to be best friends (though camaraderie can help), but it does mean you need to be able to trust your attorney implicitly. In several ways, the attorney-client relationship is very intimate. In many cases, your attorney may know things about you that no one else does. You need to be able to trust them with sensitive information. You need to believe that they are always being honest and upfront with you, and that they have your best interests at heart.
Pinning down what exactly gives you this trust can be difficult. In-person consultations usually help. It could be how attentively they listen, how well they take notes, how serious they seem, how you feel around them. The human factor is astonishingly variable, but the bottom line is this – you need an attorney you believe in.
Bringing it All Together
You’ve met with a number of attorneys, taken notes on their fees, their experience, the expected range of outcomes they’ve offered you, their personality, their office space, their availability, their reputation, and how you personally feel about them. Crunching all of this can be difficult, but it’s worth examining a few things you should be considering.
Cost is often one of the biggest factors in an individual’s mind when looking for a lawyer. Depending on the type of case, you can do a fairly accurate number crunch on this front – look at the range of expected outcomes and the estimated cost for the attorney’s services + additional fees, and you might literally be able to determine whether or not getting a lawyer is in your financial best interest.
When it comes to matters of reputation, criminal cases, and long-term attorney-client relationships, cost will be less of a factor. You want an attorney who will help you achieve your goals. Putting a dollar amount on a tarnished reputation, a criminal record, child custody, or other intangibles is impossible. Here, what will matter the most is the attorney’s reputation and experience, as well as your relationship with them.
When you need to find an attorney in San Antonio, consider the Gilbert Law Office. The Gilbert Law Office can handle all your legal needs for your criminal defense, family law, and personal injury cases. Contact the office today to get a free case consultation and evaluation.