Hi, it’s Brian Bronson. We’re back again for a Legal Tip Tuesday with Quatrini Rafferty. So, today I’m going to talk about what to look for in interviewing an attorney so when you are going out and hiring an attorney. This is a person that you might be with for an extended period of time. Although the wheels of justice move swiftly, sometimes not swiftly enough in our cases, and so you might be with this attorney for a few months at the shortest to several years at the longest and you need to know what to look for in an attorney.

Now, the younger version of myself might give you a little bit different set of advice, to not look for somebody with gray hair or somebody with experience, but really you are going to look for somebody that’s very experienced. When it comes to an attorney, most people are educated, most attorneys that are successful have gone to good schools, have graduated with honors, and have been on law review order etc. But, you really want to look more into their practical experience as an attorney. What areas do they practice in? Do they focus or specialize in one area over the other? How many clients have they handled? Can you access their clients reviews? It’s a little unique in the legal field in the fact that confidentiality prevents some access to clients and previous clients without their consent. So, you know the reviews that are available online are very helpful in helping somebody obtain an idea of what their lawyer is like.

One of the big questions we like our clients to ask us here at QuatriniRafferty is whether or not the attorney they’re hiring is going to be their attorney throughout their whole case it is going to be that attorney that’s going to be with them at the most important junctures. And the answer is yes. Once you hire an attorney QuatriniRafferty for a case that lawyer is going to be your lawyer for the dependency of the case.

Some other questions I thought would be relevant to determine whether you are comfortable with your lawyer: Is that lawyer a presenter? Have they presented at presentations for organizations? Are they well versed in their subject matter? How many cases have they won or lost in the past?

Now, we don’t specifically have a score cheap, but most attorneys will know generally what their success rate is and what types of cases they have. Again reading online reviews is a great thing to do, to be able to access other people’s thoughts about your lawyer. Talking to friends and family in the community, talking to doctors, lawyers, other people that have had a chance to speak or have experience with a lawyer is another great idea. There are some other websites, Super Lawyers, Martindale Hubble’s another good access point to take a look at your attorney and see what their ratings are and see what their reviews are.

In the end though, you really have to be comfortable with your lawyer and during the initial meeting with that lawyer you can see one whether that lawyer listens to you, whether they can sit back and give you useful information, and whether you feel comfortable with that lawyer is really the key. So, once you do your good due diligence and background, I think you’ll see that the lawyers of QuatriniRafferty check the boxes in all those categories and are very competent to handle your legal case.