How do I Choose a Good Lawyer?
Whether you are a business or private client, you expect your solicitor to have knowledge of both the law and the specific sector and issues surrounding your case that are important to you. A property lawyer, for example, should also know about mortgage requirements and a business solicitor should understand the general commercial atmosphere. Legal advice should not exist in a vacuum - client care is also crucial to how good a solicitor is.
Key Skills
A good lawyer should exercise the following key customer care skills when taking on a case:
- Listening and understanding.
As basic as this sounds, lawyers must listen to their client and acknowledge all the particulars of the case before trying to distinguish the important facts. The client should feel that they have been able to give their opinion on the matter, and discuss what they would like to achieve. The lawyer should then repeat the facts of the case back to the client so make sure that they have a complete understanding of their aims, this should be done before offering any advice.
- Plain English
Any advice provided should be explained to the client in plain English without the use of complex terminology. A good lawyer should be articulate in a manner, which allows him/her to explain complex legal issues in layman terms.
- Communication and reporting
Decent lawyers should ask their clients what their preferred method of general and emergency correspondence is; i.e. how are they most accessible - email, phone etc? Once this has been agreed, the lawyer should make sure that they keep the client up-to-date on any developments, letting them know what is going on and taking any new instructions. If you feel like you are kept in the dark concerning your own case then this is the sign of an inadequate lawyer.
- Non-legal advice
It is not always the case that a lawyer should provide legal recourse to a problem. A practiced lawyer will tend to be able to offer common sense advice alongside the legal advice he/she is giving, even if this means that the client does not need further legal services.
- Assignment
If a lawyer's technical expertise does not cover an area of your case, they are under a responsibility to ensure that the matter is transferred across to another team or individual more knowledgeable on the matter. If the case does get passed to another lawyer, the original lawyer should also inform him/her of all of the facts of the case (which incidentally should be documented in the file), this should prevent the client from having to recite their whole case again.
- Billing
It is common occurrence that a fixed fee is given for a legal service yet unforeseen costs arise causing the final bill to be larger than what was agreed. Due to this, good lawyers should inform their client before encountering these additional charges and ask permission to proceed. Alternatively the lawyers can agree an overflow budget with the client, which will be reserved to cover such costs.
About the Author
Bonallack and Bishop are Lawyers in Salisbury (http://www.bishopslaw.co.uk ). They also have particular experience as specialist conveyancing lawyers. Tim Bishop is senior partner at the firm, responsible for all major strategic decisions. He has grown the firm by 1000% in 13 years and has plans for continued expansion.
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