I have been a local family law lawyer, Fremont, for over 30 years. Most individuals in their lifetime will utilize the services of a lawyer on several occasions.Most people will not even use a lawyer five times. It can put you in a very uncomfortable position of trying to make a selection of the best available professional whose best suited to address your concerns and accomplish your goals. The purpose of this article is to give you an inside perspective from an experienced lawyer who has counseled thousands of people like yourself.
Here is a checklist of what to think about, consider and to do before you hire a lawyer:
1. It is good practice to go to the lawyer's office, look around, and network with the staff. The attorney should be ready to deal with your questions and concerns.
2. Carefully evaluate the lawyer's ability to contemporaneously provide you with comprehensive thorough answers to questions. This is the surest test of knowledge, experience and an ability to be an effective communicator.
3. Ask legal counsel about his staff. Does his firm have back up attorneys that can cover all situations if there is a conflict. The worse thing is to retain an overworked lawyer who time and time again continues your court dates because of his or her unavailability because they are over booked and/or double calendaring. Also, ask the lawyer about his staff. How long have they been working there and is there a family law legal help on the staff? If the attorney has long term employees, it tells you that this is probably a good business operation and people will be very experienced. If the staff is very experienced, this significantly reduces any possibility of mistakes and wasted time. Another problem is that if a firm is not well staffed, you will inevitably end up paying attorney fees for clerical matters. I've seen many lawyers who type their own letters and also deliver documents for filing to court. These tasks can be handled by clerical staff or courier service at a mere fraction of the cost of having the attorney involved.
4. Bring up this question: how long has this lawyer been practicing and how much of it with a focus on family law. Another question: have they dealt with over a hundred cases with similar concerns as yours. Find out if the attorney is often in the same courthouse as the one you will have yours. Almost, without exception, you will always gain advantage by hiring a lawyer with extensive experience in family law and who regularly and frequently practices law in the jurisdiction where your case will be heard. A local practitioner will be aware of not only the local rules, but also the nuances of each particular family law judge in that community. While a new lawyer may have energy and enthusiasm, nevertheless, they will not have the tactics, strategy and timing that takes many years to develop and greatly assists the practitioner in his or her representation of the client. At a high level, and hopefully you will obtain legal counsel of this caliber, the case will be one half tactics, timing and strategy and one half legal theory. In family law, there is a lot more than just going to the books and looking at the statutes.
As a Fremont family law lawyer, I hope this inside peak into the law office is helpful to you when the time comes to pull the trigger and actually retain legal counsel.
I am a family lawyer who practices out of Fremont, located in Alameda county in Northern California, one of the ten Bay Area counties. John Kitta is an active trial attorney in Fremont California with more than 32 years of proven quality winning courtroom experience. He has received many awards and recognitions for his achievements and is a life-long resident of his local community. http://www.youareingoodhands.com.
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