Generally people don’t look for a lawyer until the need arises. Someone sues you, or you decide to bring a lawsuit, or you were wrongfully terminated from your employment, suffered sexual harassment in the work place, or you were arrested for committing a crime. This, unfortunately, can often lead to not retaining the best lawyer that you can find for your needs. There are many ways to find a lawyer, but there’s really only one way to find a good lawyer and one that’s right for you – do your research!

Get a List of Specialized Attorneys

The first step is to put together a list of 5-7 lawyers that specialize in the area of law that you need legal representation for. There are many good lawyers who are general practitioners, not specializing in one specific area, but handling a few or many different areas. They may very well be excellent attorneys, but depending on your legal needs, it’s often better to retain a specialist, especially in cases such as DUI/DWI defense, for example.

How do you know if a lawyer is a specialist? Easy. First visit their websites. This should give you a pretty clear indication of the areas of law the focuses on. Some law firms will handle many areas of law, but have different lawyers focused on each one. Ask if he or she specializes in the particular area of law that you need representation for and/or what percentage of his or her law practice is focused on the particular area of law. Find out if they belong to any special law organizations dedicated to the particular area of law. See if they write articles on the specific legal subject. Do they teach this area of law?

Interview the Lawyers

Now that you have a list of specialized attorneys that you can be assured of are knowledgeable and experienced in the area of law you need services for, the next step is to meet with them. This is, of course, assuming that you have time to do so. You must always be aware of the statute of limitations for the type of legal action you seek to bring and of any important upcoming dates. Assuming you have time, contact each lawyer on your list to set up a time to meet. Many attorneys will offer a free legal consultation or meeting to get an idea of the services you are seeking. Take advantage of this time, which is usually no more than 30 minutes. Observe the law office, how many people work there, are they courteous, does the office seem understaffed, etc. You want the best attorney you can afford to represent you, but you also want one that will be attentive to your needs and be able to respond to your inquiries. Get a feel for the attorney’s thoughts about your legal needs, see if he or she seems enthused about your case or if you may end up just being another file on his or her desk. Remember, you want a good lawyer, but you also want one that you feel comfortable working with and one that you trust.

You don’t have to choose the first lawyer you speak to or come across. More than likely, you will be investing a lot of money for the legal services you seek out, so do your research and find the right lawyer for you. Remember, any lawyer can take out an ad on television, radio or in the newspaper, but it doesn’t mean they’re the best at what they do or the right lawyer for you. There are a lot of good lawyers out there and sometimes it just takes a little work to find them.

By: Sonny Sheth

This is how you can find an excellent Detroit child custody lawyer

You can find good child custody attorneys everywhere, but finding and choosing a good lawyer from their crop is quite a task. You have to spend some time and make effort if you want your case to be represented by a sharp legal professional. If you approach a lawyer directly, he is sure to convince you that he is the right man for the job because he wants your business, but you shouldn’t take a lawyer’s talk at face value. Here’s how you must go about finding and choosing a good family lawyer:

1. References

One way to find a good lawyer is to ask a friend or a relation if they can recommend a legal professional who has performed a great job in a known case case. If any of your friends or relations are satisfied with a family lawyer’s services, they will only be too happy to introduce you to him. If they haven’t availed of a family lawyer’s services, but have been to a good lawyer who has worked well in another case, they can still refer you to that lawyer and then you can take a referral from him.

You can try calling a paralegal service and checking with them too. However, they will recommend the services of only those lawyers who outsource work from them.

2. Listings

Checking the Detroit child custody lawyer listings in the yellow pages is another option. While you won’t be able to figure out how competent a lawyer is by looking at his ad, you may be able to figure out how much they charge, specially the initial consultation rate. Typically, family lawyers will be listed in the “Attorneys” section, which is further broken down into divorce, family law, marital and family law, etc.

3. The Martindale Hubbell Law Directory

The Martindale Hubbell Law Directory is a rich source of lawyer information. It lists close to 800,000 lawyers, and the information it carries about each listing is stupendous. You can get information such as age, degree, year when the lawyer started practice which helps you figure out how experienced he is, his bar association membership details, certification and ratings by peers, which is extremely important as you can figure out what a lawyer’s peers think of his skills and attitude.

The peer rating in the Martindale Hubbell Law Directory is extremely important. It is divided into two significant areas – legal ability and general recommendation. Ratings under the legal ability section take into account experience, qualifications and the nature of practice. The ratings range is from A to C. Under the general recommendation section, lawyers are rated based on their adherence to professional standards, ethics, diligence, discharge of responsibilities and how much they stick to the code of conduct. The ratings range from A-V.

The directory lists Michigan custody lawyers by city and state. You have to figure out the area of specialization before calling up one of these lawyers, which you can do by looking for the particular lawyer up on the Internet. The Martindale Hubbell Law Directory is available in hard copy and is also accessible online at http://www.martindale.com. You can pay a visit to the public library or the courthouse law library to refer to the hard copy.

4. Advertisements

A Detroit child custody lawyer will normally advertise in magazines, newspapers and in some cases also on Radio and TV. You may refer to these ads to find a good family lawyer – but no matter how glitzy these ads are, they cannot really vouch for a lawyer’s competence.

By: Brent Delaurentis