You’ve been charged with a crime and now you need to find the best attorney available to help you protect your rights and preserve your freedom. It can be a daunting task to hire the lawyer best able to serve your legal needs. Don’t be intimidated because there are actually many tools available for you to choose an attorney who will be a good fit for you and your case.
Get a personal referral. Ask around your circle of friends and family, have they had experience with an attorney and was it good or bad? Of course, sometimes the nature of your case is personal and you may not want to discuss the details with people you know. That’s where searching online can be useful. You can look at online review sites like AVVO or Yelp to see what people say about an attorney, good or bad. Sites like AVVO will also have a synopsis of the lawyer’s practice, case results, years of experience and if they’ve ever been disciplined by the Bar Association. When in doubt, you can always ask Google, “who is the best (type of case) lawyer in (your town/state)?”. You shouldn’t base your decision on any single one of these items, but they can be used to piece together a picture of your potential attorney.
Once you have a couple of attorneys in mind you should take a few minutes to review their websites. A good website will have a comprehensive biography of the attorneys as well as case results to back up that the firm’s experience and success. The website should have testimonials from former clients. How many attorneys are in the practice? It’s always best if there are two attorneys at the office who handle the same type of case in the event one is unavailable when you need consultation about your case. Remember that you want your attorney to specialize in the type of law you need help with. You wouldn’t go to a podiatrist for a heart condition, so don’t go to a bankruptcy lawyer for your personal injury case or a real estate lawyer for your criminal case. You can also check if they are on social media sites such as Facebook and see what their message is to the community. Do they seem informed on the latest laws? Are they engaged with the community?
Lastly, people have a tendency to think “I need the biggest law firm I can get to handle my case”. Actually, that is rarely true. A mid-size firm in your area, if they have the expertise, case results, and testimonials we talked about above, will serve you better for many reasons. You will have a better one-on-one relationship with your attorney, more attention from their paralegals, investigators and support staff.