July 15, 2014
Most people never need an attorney and they have no experience to fall back on in deciding what attorney they may want to hire. Sorting through lawyer Yellow Pages, television advertisements and Internet promotions often creates more confusion than clarity. However, if the attorney you hire meets the following criteria you will probably be well taken care of:
- The attorney experienced in handling the kind of legal problem you are dealing with.
- The attorney has a good reputation.
- The attorney communicates clearly with you about what is going to happen in your legal matter if he/she is retained.
- After meeting with the attorney, you find he/she is trustworthy
- The attorney is going to handle your case rather than farming it out to someone you have never met.
One must also ask, is the attorney experienced in handling your kind of legal problem?
There are lots of different types of attorneys for lots of different types of legal problems. Most attorneys specialize in a particular area of the law. If you have a personal injury or workers compensation case, you want to select an attorney who is experienced in those areas of law. Your brother-in-law’s divorce attorney is not the person you want to hire to help you with a complex personal injury case, nor do you want an attorney experienced in the personal injury field handling your divorce.
You find out if an attorney is experienced in a particular field by asking specific questions like how many cases has the attorney handled which are similar to yours? If the attorney has never handled a case like yours, you probably do not want that person representing you.
Does the attorney have a good reputation?
You want to be represented by an attorney who has a good reputation in the legal community for being honest, straightforward and competent. Clients who are represented by attorneys who were not trusted by the court, the other members of the legal profession, or by their own clients, suffer from the sins of their counsel. Cases handled by an untrustworthy attorney take longer to be concluded because nothing goes smoothly when all of participants are spending most of their time making sure they are not being lied to or cheated.
How do you determine if an attorney has a good reputation or not? Consider the following:
- You can check with the Alaska Bar Association to see if there have been ethics complaints filed against the attorney.
- You can check and see if they are approved by the Better Business Bureau.
- You can go to the Alaska court systems website and look under “Courtview” to see if the attorney has ever been sued.
- If you are lucky, you may even know someone who has personal experience with the attorney who can give you insight.
Most respected attorneys are very proud of their reputation. Go ahead and ask the attorney what they believe their reputation is in the community and see what kind of response you get. That response may give you enough information to formulate a gut reaction is to just what kind of a reputation this person has.
Does the attorney communicate clearly with you about what is going to happen in your legal matter if he/she is retained?
At the end of the first meeting with the attorney you should know whether he/she communicates clearly. Ask yourself “do I understand what the attorney is talking about.” If the attorney talks in words you do not understand or does not ask you questions to determine if you are understanding his/her explanations, you may want to select another attorney. It is the attorney’s job to explain complex issues in ways which help clients understand the issues. Though legalese has its place at times, there is no real purpose in an attorney using complicated legal terms, unless the client fully understands those terms.
Though an attorney cannot guarantee how a case is going to turn out, usually an attorney can give a general outline of what the client should expect in the future. As more facts come to light, the attorney’s opinion may change so the client should never expect a guaranteed outcome. However, in most circumstances an experienced attorney can give a client a reasonable description of the legal process and what the client should expect in the future. If this does not happen in the first meeting, a second meeting may not be in order.
If you have any further questions please contact me at 907-929-4890.