Monday, November 4, 2013

How Do People Select Rhode Island Divorce Attorneys to Interview?

Let's face it. Rhode Island lawyers and lawyers in general are officers of the court. We're supposed to be servants of the public. Yet at the same same we're independent practitioners and we we've got a job to do and money to bring in through our private practice or we don't survive.It's no wonder Rhode Island Lawyers are viewed with skepticism and even cynicism, especially when it's time to hire one and you're not sure who to hire or what to do. Here you are, you have a legal issue that needs to be addressed and you take the time to try to identify an attorney who will meet your needs.It's easy for questions to surface as to whether the attorney you're interviewing is looking out for your best interests or simply looking out for his or her own interests and making some money to put food on his or her own table. It is, in fact, appropriate for you to question the attorney's motives. The best time to do that is at the time you interview the attorney.You should know that when you set up an appointment to see an attorney, YOU are interviewing the attorney just as much as the attorney is interviewing YOU.So how do people generally go about choosing an attorney?1) A referral from a friend or family member. This is a good source of referrals for the attorney, but is the attorney right for YOU? What did the attorney do for that friend or family member who made the referral? Did the attorney settle a personal injury case? That's not going to do you much good if you need someone for a family law matter. If your referral isn't to an attorney that regularly practices in the area of law you need and it isn't from a person who used those same type of family law services then the referral is "empty", in other words a referral should be better than just hunting around in the yellow pages. It should provide some valuable reassurance that the attorney you've been referred to, can and has already provided valuable an competent services to the person who is making the referral to you, and that those services are in the area of law that you need help with. Without that criteria, the referral is "Empty".2) An advertisement in the yellow pages.This is of course an even less effective way to select a suitable lawyer to interview than the referral from a friend or family member who did not use the attorney for the same type of legal services that you are in need of. When you just select attorneys out of the yellow pages you will most likely do like everyone else does. You select the attorney based on the advertisement itself, particularly its size and its wording. Unfortunately neither of these are indicators that the attorney is competent or will serve you well in the area of law you are in need of. Imagine that you are in need of a divorce attorney and you select the attorney's advertisement that is the largest and includes the words "Estates", "Personal Injury Cases", and Divorces, etc... with 15 years in practice".First, that advertisement probably cost quite a bit since even small advertisements in the yellow pages run $3,000 to $5,000 a year. From there you can take a guess who has to pay for just that single marketing ad. That's right...that attorney's clients. You can almost certainly plan to pay more for an attorney with a decent sized yellow page ad. Conversely, that attorney might be worth it if you select just the right one.Second, the "15 years in practice" tells you one of two things. Either that you are going to pay more for those years of experience or that he has been doing "something" law-related for 15 years. I know attorneys who have been in practice for 20 years and have handled perhaps 10 divorces in that amount of time. By the same token the advertisement above wouldn't seem as impressive if you knew that the attorney only handled 4 divorces within his 15 years of practice. That might not want to be the attorney you want to represent you if you need a Rhode Island Divorce attorney and complex divorce issues regarding pensions, alimony and tax consequences on the sale of a home come into play.3) Search for the kind of Rhode Island lawyer you want on the internet. This is becoming more and more the method of searching for attorneys in the technoliterate sector of society. Those who choose this method of searching can go to Google.com or another search site of their choice and type in the various terms they want to search on. Searchers can also vary their search terms if the results do not suit them. The main benefit to searching the internet to find Rhode Island attorneys to interview is the third party nature of the ranking system. In a search system such as Google.com, the primary listings are ranked by criteria that are not controlled by attorney. It is Google's system that analyzes the attorney's websites and/or pages and determines from there whether the attorney's website matches the criteria you are looking for. In this way you are getting an unbiased selection of attorney websites to review.Secondarily, if you are searching on the internet for an attorney, you will know if the attorney has a website or not. This will at least give you some indication that the attorney has kept up with technology. If he or she has done so then if it is important to be able to communicate with your attorney by email this may be a factor in your decision to interview that particular attorney. The information on the website of the attorney is also likely to be the most focused regarding what his or her primary practice areas. In some instances the attorney's website will provide the most valuable information about the attorney in order to decide which attorneys to interview.