If you need to hire a family lawyer in the near future, continue reading to discover a handy guide to choosing a professional family lawyer.
Tips on hiring a family lawyer:
1. Make sure to hire a family lawyer whose office responds quickly to your phone calls, queries and emails
Before selecting a family lawyer, it’s well worth contacting several family lawyers with a query to see which lawyers get back to you quickly. As the last thing you want to do is to hire a family lawyer who doesn’t respond to contact promptly.
2. Choose a family lawyer who you can trust
Also, make sure to choose a family lawyer who you feel comfortable with. As you may have to talk to your chosen family lawyer about sensitive information or issues in the future.
As an example, you may have to talk to your family lawyer in the future, if you choose to set up a will to protect your family member’s interests if you pass away. Or in the unfortunate event that your marriage dissolves in the future, you may have to trust your family lawyer in order to advocate for your best interests, in a scenario where your ex-spouse wants to fight you for custody of your shared children.
If in doubt, it’s well worth meeting with a potential family lawyer in person, to get a sense of whether or not you feel comfortable sharing personal info with them, before selecting them as your new family lawyer.
3. Ask a potential candidate how long they’ve been practicing family law
Ideally, you’ll want to hire a family lawyer who has over a decade of experience, practicing family law. As in general the more experience which a family lawyer can offer, the greater chance they have of being able to best represent your family’s interests.
4. Ask your friends and family members for a referral
One way to hire a professional family lawyer is to task a trusted friend or family member for a referral. As a family lawyer is far more likely to take you on as a client if you have been referred to them by one of their current long-term clients.
As a bonus, if a close friend or family member can vouch for their own family lawyer, there’s a high chance that their family lawyer is well worth contacting for more information.
5. Check each potential family lawyer’s website for their credentials
It’s also well worth conducting a bit of research on each potential lawyer’s history by checking their website for their credentials. As ideally, the family lawyer who you choose to hire should have graduated from a prestigious college. As opposed to a community college.
6. Ask a potential lawyer about their success ratio
Don’t be afraid to ask a potential family lawyer about their success ratio as you should aim to hire a family lawyer who has a high success rate.
7. Make sure that the lawyer that you’re about to hire specializes in family law
Don’t be tempted to hire a lawyer who practices general law or another specialty of law such as business law. Instead, look for a lawyer who specializes in family law such as, family lawyers Newcastle.
So, if you follow the 7 tips listed above, you won’t have any trouble hiring a professional, experienced family lawyer who you’ll be able to trust.