What to look for when you need a lawyer? (The last tip is for looking for a bankruptcy attorney)

  • Figure out exactly what you need done, or if you are unsure as to what you need;
  • Ask your friends, as someone you know may have needed a lawyer for something similar;
  • If you have had an attorney before, call and ask them for a referral. If it is something they don’t handle, they will probably know someone that does handle that area of law and can likely refer you to another attorney that they think does a good job;
  • If you see an advertisement for an attorney, look them up. If they have a website, see if they handle the type of case you are looking for:
  • 1. I don’t just mean comments people have made, as I don’t think most attorneys have ratings on Google etc, but I could be mistaken.  I mean to look them up.  Their website may or may not be the best, as not all lawyers are good at that type of thing, and don’t assume that even if their website looks great, they actually have experience in that area.
  • 2. So look and see if they have a blog, or things like that on their site, and if they do, see if they actually have posts about what you are looking for, as that generally means they really practice in that area;
  • Attorneys cannot give you specific advice and cannot guarantee anything, so if they tell you something along the lines of “oh, no problem, you are going to get ___ “ or  “don’t worry, that never happens”, you may want to think about not hiring that person, as the  law does not work that way.  We can tell you what may happen (and we should), what is mostly likely to happen and in our experience how things normally work out, but no one call tell you with 100% accuracy what will happen in court and if they say that, then they are not being truthful with you;
  • When an attorney asks you a question, don’t be embarrassed or not completely honest with them for any reason, as we cannot do our job without knowing everything. If the attorney doesn’t ask you questions, that should also be a warning about the attorney.
  • This is for people looking for bankruptcy attorneys specifically.  We all know that more people will have to file bankruptcy this year, due to Covid-19, and many people are looking to start filing bankruptcies this year.  You are allowed to ask how long that attorney has been handling bankruptcies when you contact their office.  You are allowed to ask how many cases that specific attorney has filed with the bankruptcy court and if you don’t like their answer; you are allowed to look for a different attorney.