Choosing the Best Lawyer For Your Case

Let's face it... having to hire a lawyer sucks. That being said you need to make sure you find the best attorney that you can afford. Making matters worse is that the situation that brought you to the point that you need to hire a lawyer was most likely pretty terrible to begin with. How are you supposed to asses a quality lawyer when you may have never hired one before? It's not as easy as doing a Google search and hiring the first lawyer on page 1.
If you're like most people, you have no basis to compare a good attorney from a bad one. It's not like hiring a plumber where the result of their work is either the clog is gone or it's still there. You may not even know if you hired a good attorney until years down the road when a problem or issue with your case pops up. Here's a few tips to find the best lawyer for your unique situation:

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Step 1: Get a Referral
It sounds so 20th century doesn't it? A great way to find the best attorney is to seek a reference from your friends, colleagues or family members. Chances are good that if they did well by them, they'll probably work out well for you too. Also, when a lawyer receives a referral from a former client, (or another attorney), they usually like to make sure they "go the extra mile" because they're always building their referral network.

Step 2: Research the Lawyer
Whether you found the attorney through a referral or not, you still need to perform due diligence by checking what other people's experience is with that particular lawyer. InlandEmpireLawyers.com makes this process easy by assembling our attorney profiles with links to each attorney's reviews: Yelp, Martindale-Hubble and AVVO. You should consider that lawyers can sometimes piss people off, just because you found a few negative reviews you should take that with a grain of salt. I've never met a lawyer with 100% client satisfaction... even if that's what Yelp says. They'll always have a client somewhere that thinks they could've done a better job, even if it was completely out of the attorney's control. In fact, I'll suggest that if your prospective attorney hasn't made someone mad along their career path maybe they aren't the fighter you're looking for? More on this here.

Step 3: Interview At Least 3 Lawyers
Although this probably sounds like pulling teeth, chances are your legal problem deserves more than one opinion. You probably look at 5-10 pairs of shoes before buying, this decision should at least deserve that level of attention and scrutiny. Many attorneys offer a free initial consultation, use that valuable time to answer their questions accurately and most importantly ask your own:

1. What was the result of their last case that was similar to yours?
2. How much of their practice focuses on the type of case you have?
3. How much experience do they have?
4. If your case goes to trial do they have experience in front of a jury (if applicable)?
   
5. What are their communication habits? There's nothing worse than meeting your lawyer once and never hearing from them unless you bug them.

Whether you're dealing with a divorce, DUI or bankruptcy you should always hire the attorney that you feel will best represent your interest in court. You may be in for a long journey or a short story, but you need to make sure that your lawyer's goals are in line with your own. If you want the matter settled quickly and your attorney wants to take it to the Supreme Court you're going to be pushing and pulling against each other.

If you find a lawyer on InlandEmpireLawyers.com please make sure to tell them that you found them here!