Attorneys

Attorneys Are a Necessary Evil

How to Choose a Lawyer

Let’s hope you never need to deal with attorneys. If you do, everybody seems to have one or more in their family, their wife’s family or who live down the street. They breed like rabbits.

Just because someone has graduated from law school and passed the bar, doesn’t mean he can find the courthouse or know what to do once he gets inside – I was a lawyer and know that of which I speak.

In any event lawyers, like most other professionals, tend to specialize. The field is too big and too much is happening for a “general practitioner” to stay on top of it all.

So before hiring your brother-in-law to represent you, make sure he’s a specialist in the problem you have. Too many lawyers are too hungry and they’ll claim they can handle any type case just fine – after all they are licensed attorneys. That is simply not true.

If your brother-in-law wants to help, have him find the two or three best attorneys in your state that handle the type of case you have – he’ll get a referral fee if you use one of them.

Otherwise, every state bar association has a Lawyers Referral Service. Theoretically it is supposed to supply you with the names of two or three attorneys who are experts in the field you need.

These attorneys in turn have agreed to supply people referred to them with a 30 minute free consultation. In many cases, this may be enough to solve your problems.

Legal Ethics

Lawyers must follow a strict code of ethics. They can be disbarred for straying. However, keep some things in mind.

A lawyer is obliged to report potential criminal acts that you tell him you are about to commit to the authorities . He also has to tell the court if he knows you’re lying under oath.

Also if the authorities come knocking on his door looking into certain of your past shady affairs, he might be forced to reveal information otherwise protected by the lawyer-client privilege. Be careful about whom you talk to about your off-shore accounts.

Lawyers can be paid on a contingency basis, common in the personal injury field, or by the hour. Sometimes the fee is fixed by the lawyer, e.g. for a simple will or house closing.

In some cases, the fees must be approved by the court.

Use a Legal Specialist

One reason to find a specialist on whatever legal problem you are having is that you can avoid the "reinventing the wheel" problem.

If you are arrested for driving under the influence, a DUI specialist will have the law down pat, will know the prosecutors and even the police officers, will know if the Breathalyzer test can be challenged and so on.

You won't have to pay for him to do legal research to find out how to defend your case. Thus you save money in the long term.

The same goes for any legal problem. The worst thing you need is someone charging you a couple of hundred dollars an hour while he learns the law involved in your case.

Of course there are unique cases that require legal research, but let's hope you never get involved in one.

Paying Your Lawyer

You will be asked to sign a retainer agreement. Once this is signed, the other party’s lawyer can’t talk to you anymore.

Fees can run into the hundred’s of dollars an hour. Make sure the attorney bills in one-tenth of the hour increments. Also make sure you aren’t paying partner’s rates for the work that will be done by clerks and associates. And finally go into some detail as to what costs will be billed and how much.

You really don’t want to pay for travel and meal times, although you probably won’t be able to avoid it. An attorney's stock and trade is his time. So he will make it up somehow.

If you are paying by the hour ask for monthly itemized bills. Never pay a bill that simply says “For Professional Services Rendered.”

A good attorney can render invaluable services and save you lots of money in the long run. They can also be helpful in relieving the psychological stress you might be experiencing.

Fortunately most people only need lawyers for their house closing and estate planning.

For the later, your lawyer should work in concert with your accountant or financial planner.

How Much Legal Representation Do You Need and Can You Afford?

Even if you have a lawyer working on a contingency fee basis, you have to consider how much you can afford to invest in a lawsuit emotionally and financially - those expert fees come off the top.

Lawsuits eat up a lot of paper, require the use of experts, involve motions, depositions and other court appearances. Lawyers make their living doing this stuff and their income usually goes up the more they do it.

If you read the part above about experienced lawyers, you will have someone who can cut through the clutter quickly and get to the resolution of your case.

The parties involved, on the other hand, tend to take their suits personally and invest way too much of their life in them. They probably have never been in this situation before, feel they have been greviously injured and have all sorts of friends telling them how many millions their Aunt Millie got for a sprained thumb.

Believe it or not, in many cases, you can get the same offer to settle - or one very close to it - (on a net basis) without bothering with a lawyer, but you won't know that and most lawyers won't tell you. As a matter of fact, your lawyer will tell you not to talk to the insurance company or your adversary directly and once you retain a lawyer they are forbidden from doing so.

Most people have no idea about how damages are accessed in the legal system or how an insurance company decides what your sprained thumb is worth.

Everybody reads about how the legal system is turning in a gigantic lottery and hope they come out winners.

I have seen many people so deeply convinced of the righteousness of their claim turn down generous settlement offers only to see the jury dismiss their case.

If you ever get involved in a lawsuit either as a plaintiff or defendant, be realistic. If you have a good lawyer, he will give you good advice on what to do and you should listen to him. After all that is what you are paying him for.

Lay people should try to shun lawsuits and try to get them over with as quickly as possible.

The best advice any lawyer can give you is "take the deal and run."

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