If you need a family lawyer, you will likely be in difficult circumstances. You need someone you can trust, who is serious, professional, and of course, has the knowledge and experience to represent you properly. Here is our guide to choosing the right legal representative for you.
You must be able to work with them
You will need to tell your family lawyers about personal and sensitive matters to represent you properly. Therefore, you should feel comfortable with them. Just liking them is not enough to base your final decision on. Rather you should find out if they have experience fighting issues similar to yours. Also, make sure that they can answer your questions in a way that you understand – just giving you answers is useless unless you fully understand what you mean.
Don’t be shy to be interviewed
Your position is significant to you, so you must check all the correct boxes. Here are some things you should always keep in mind:
Do your characters work together, or do they conflict?
How easy is it to contact them, and how quickly do they respond?
Can they work within your budget, or will there be additional costs in the future?
Take advice
It is always wise to consult trusted friends and family, but the final decision should be your own and that you feel completely comfortable with by the same token. Even if they use it themselves, each person’s case is different. On the other hand, online reviews should be taken with a salt pinch. You don’t know the person who wrote it, their circumstances, or if they have an agenda of their own. It may sound cynical, but caution is the best approach.
Choose an individual, not a company
Almost every legal company will have several representatives, so it is important to choose the right person and not your second or even third choice. As we said, feeling comfortable is of the utmost importance. You need to know that the individual has the experience you need – your transition to a colleague is not good enough. Information transmitted from a second hand is never as good as hearing it directly from a horse’s mouth.
Knowledge and experience
Some legal representatives deal with multiple avenues of cases. This might be great if you are challenging a parking violation but totally inappropriate when it comes to family law. You will not go to a GP for open-heart surgery, and you should be extremely hesitant about going to a lawyer who does not limit their practice to family law matters if you need a divorce.
cost
Make sure you know how much it costs before you start. Are they charging a flat fee? If not, you have no idea how much things cost, and you may end up leaving a bill that you cannot afford.