FAQs
- What advice would you give a customer looking to hire a provider in your area of work?
Selecting the right attorney is essential to your success. Select An Appropriate Price Point Most attorneys have bulk practices. This means they handle the same kinds of cases and give them all roughly the same treatment. This approach can be economical because it reduces the need for an attorney's individual attention to cases. In a bulk practice, the attorney's role is largely that of an administrator. A well run bulk practice keeps costs down and produces consistent and conventional legal solutions. This approach is appropriate if your problem can be solved without much creativity, legal research or vigorous advocacy. However, in my experience while most lawyers handle bulk practices, most problems cannot be satisfactorily solved with a bulk approach. My clients benefit from more intensive and creative attention than a bulk practice can support. This kind of attention costs more than what you are likely to pay in a bulk practice. If your problem requires creative thinking, legal research, vigorous advocacy, or close attention to detail, you will probably not be happy with the results of a bulk approach. Whatever price point you select, keep in mind that you need to be able to pay your legal bills. Regardless of how friendly or sympathetic your attorney may seem, if you pay your bills slowly or fail to pay, the services you receive will be compromised. Look Past Hype and Salesmanship Beware overblown salesmanship, elaborate menus of stock solutions, or long initial interviews that purport to give you important insights and answers. An attorney who seems to provide answers in this interview is providing advice without having taken you on as a client and without having investigated the facts or the law. An attorney who carries on a long initial interview may be willing to tell you whatever he feels is necessary for you to retain him. Before retaining a tax law firm, ask to meet with the attorney expected to perform most of the work on your case. It's in your interest to keep your initial interview brief. Your need to keep your judgment sharp, provide basic information, and ask a few salient questions. Focus on the attorney's attitude toward work. Ask him about how he works and about his philosophy of getting results. Ask him if he thinks he's the right attorney for your problem and why. Select Someone You Trust to Get the Job Done, Not Someone You Like It's tempting but unhelpful to look for personal sympathies in an attorney. What gets the job done is not feelings but effective action. You don't need a feel-good relationship or someone you feel cozy with. You need results. You need to trust your attorney to handle your problem effectively and to vigorously advance your interests. Listen carefully to way the way he describes his general approach to breaking down your problem. How detailed will he be in understanding the facts and the law? How inventive will he be in formulating a solution? How much passion does he have about his work?