How does a Lawyer Finder Work?

Advantage Denton lawyer finders perform a fresh search to find the right lawyer for each client. 

We do not accept money from lawyers to send them clients.  Advantage Denton will search for your right lawyer based only on what you want your lawyer to be like and which lawyer fits your needs. 

 A standard lawyer search from us plus the first thirty minutes of lawyer interview costs $99.

Usually this is less than the interview cost alone if you did the work to find the lawyer yourself.

Have Us Find the Right Lawyer for You

* Calling lawyers and judges is a normal part of searching for One Lawyer.

How to find your own lawyer:

The first thing to think about when you want to find your own lawyer is whether you need a lawyer at all. It is  likely that if you have reached this web site, you are sure that you at least need a lawyer's advice about whether you need further legal services. It is not at all uncommon for an attorney to meet with someone and advise that they don't need to hire a lawyer or that other steps should be taken first. Whether you just need to start out with that advice, or you need to hire an attorney to represent you, the lawyer finding process is pretty similar.

If you know that you need or want to meet with a lawyer for advice or for representation, the next step is to figure out what area of law the attorney should practice in. This may seem obvious a lot of the time, but there are lawyers who emphasize particular types of cases within an area of law. Sometimes, it is not easy to figure out which area or areas of law the attorney needs to know. Some problems are in more than one area of law or in a highly specialized sub area of law. It helps a lot to know about law and lawyers when you look for an attorney because then figuring out what area of law and which attorneys have the right amount of experience in that area of law is much easier.

The right amount of experience for the lawyer is also quite important. While it is not obvious to someone who is not regularly working with attorneys, certain types of cases fit much better with a lawyer who has less experience or with medium or long term experience in a particular legal area of practice. When you look for a lawyer to advise about small claims court, for instance, it is far more likely that a newer lawyer is more suitable for the interview. A complex tort case with class action elements will need to be sent only to very experienced attorneys. Every client and every case is unique and the fit of attorney to client can make all the difference in satisfaction and results. By the way, those sites that tell you to ask the lawyer for the ratio of cases they have won are not giving you good generalized advice. That is a silly question when asked of lawyers in a lot of areas of law and the answer will not be meaningful. It is not always the case that the most experienced attorney will be the right lawyer, either. Sometimes lawyers who have been around a long time are not as good as a newer attorney. It depends on the totality of the circumstances, every time.

Another issue to consider which can be quite confusing is where the lawyer's office should be and which courts (when relevant) the attorney should regularly practice in. Often, folks want an attorney whose office is close to the client's home or to their workplace. This is certainly one of the factors to consider. Convenience is important and can make a difference in the quality of communication when lawyer and client visit in person rather than only over the telephone or by email, fax or other writing. Particularly when there is a language barrier or intensely emotional issues, it can help a lot to read the other person's body language. Skype video conferencing or other internet services can help a bit when longer distance communication is unavoidable.

It is not true that the closest attorney is always the right attorney for your needs. There are many reasons why you may need an attorney in another state or in another city, away from where you live and work. Sometimes the closest attorney is simply not as good a fit for your needs as another attorney in the same community or a little further away. Quite often, the attorney you need may be in another location due to the way the law works. For instance, in family law cases involving children, there is a law called the UCCJA/UCCJEA which determines which state in the USA has power to decide the case. So many families move around that this results in needing a lawyer in another state. Sometimes, you need an attorney who practices in an area of law not available really close to your home and it is worth the effort to work with the right attorney rather than getting advice from a lawyer who just does not have the ability to give as good of advice. When you pay by the hour, paying for the right information in the fewest hours is worth a lot more than paying for less useful advice over a longer time (or over any time at all). Finding the right lawyer further from home can feel daunting when you are not an expert at lawyer finding.

A category of information that few clients consider carefully before looking for a lawyer is the kinds of legal services the attorney is willing to offer and experienced at providing. This is not the same thing as area of law and is somewhat related to the geographic location of the lawyer and client. Some consumers of legal services know that they want an attorney to provide them with full representation in litigation with extensive formal discovery and high expenses for which the client expects the attorney to provide funding. At the other end of the spectrum, some clients just want 30 minutes of legal advice to get an idea what their rights are or as all the coaching they can afford in representing themselves. When selecting the right lawyer, it is a really good idea to consider how the client wants to utilize the attorney's services and which attorney is willing and able to provide those types of services. For a description of several different ways clients can work with an attorney and have more control over the amount of money that they spend, see our page on Many Cost Effective Ways to Use a Lawyer.

Finding the right lawyer depends a great deal upon intangible intuition that can not be clearly stated in writing. Since any good business person is not willing to say negative things about anther business person and lawyers are particularly loathe to make any negative comment about each other, we can't tell you all of the things to look out for. Researching the background of any lawyer before setting an interview up is essential. One of the obvious things that many clients don't think to do is to find out whether there are any bar association sanctions against the attorney. This is not always a disqualification, but surely needs to be known about. Most of the people who advertise that they are an attorney really are attorneys, but this is also something folks sometimes don't verify. A lawyer finder looks at the advertisements for the lawyer's practice and evaluates whether the personality reflected in anything written by or about that lawyer fits well with the needs of the client. Big advertisements work to bring in a lot of clients and often the lawyers who are easiest to stumble across are not necessarily the right lawyer for everyone. More modest advertisements are common for lawyers who have a lot of repeat business from satisfied clients or who get many referrals from professionals who know how to find them and how to evaluate the quality of the services they provide. Lawyers who don't advertise at all are lawyers who don't want any non-referral business. When they are the right lawyer for you, it is pretty hard to find them on your own.

Other ways to find a lawyer:

While lawyer referral services, telephone directories and the Internet can provide useful services, they do not perform a search for the right lawyer for the individual client. They all limit you to the lawyers who paid them money or who signed up with their particular service. They don't personally contact the lawyer's office and make an appointment for you. Usually, lawyers who pay more to be on their list are easier to find. Often, the lawyer who pays the most money to get to the top of a list or for the most expensive advertising is not the best lawyer for you. The different ways of knowing where to look for lawyer information and understanding how to sort it all out is constantly changing. While the above suggestions can help, the totality of the process used by an expert lawyer finder is too complex to explain here or anywhere - using or being a professional lawyer finder is the way to find the right lawyer.

Bar association lawyer referral services are geographically limited and list only lawyers who pay to be listed. They give clients the next name off a list of attorneys. Lawyer referral service rules may prevent them from considering your wishes about the characteristics of the lawyer beyond geography and listed practice area. Lawyer referral services are usually (but not always) sponsored by non-profit bar associations and many of them do have rules requiring attorneys to carry malpractice insurance. Sometimes lawyers referral services have requirements for a certain number of years of experience before attorneys can get referrals in certain areas of law. Many of these non-profits also provide access to low cost legal services for persons of limited means. The lawyer referral services almost always charge a fee to lawyers to be on their list (sometimes a fairly small fee) and many lawyer referral services receive a percentage of the fees a client pays to the lawyer for their services. Lawyer referral services usually also require that the client pay a fee to the service or to the attorney for the interview. This interview fee is usually $25-$45 per interview with the next lawyer off of the list.

Asking other people about good lawyers can sometimes help you find one. Do consider the source because not everyone is expert at evaluating attorney performance. Also be very aware that the right lawyer for someone else may not be the right lawyer for you if your circumstance or your case is different. Asking lawyer offices for referrals to other lawyers can also lead to checkered results because lawyers and their staff are not trained lawyer finders, don't get paid to find your lawyer, and don't like the liability risk of giving lawyer referrals when it is not what they do best. Unless they personally believe a particular lawyer is best for you, lawyers and their staff will usually send you to Advantage Denton, to a bar association lawyer referral service, or to the phone book and Internet to find your own lawyer.

While useful for people who choose to find their own lawyer, these services are not the same as lawyer finding services performed by Advantage Denton. If you want to see if a lawyer referral service covers your area, the American Bar Association provides a list of lawyer referral services.

When you find your own lawyer or just take the next lawyer off some list, you will pay the lawyer referral fee or pay the lawyer whatever they charge for their time. Advantage Denton is a bargain - $99 to find the right lawyer for you and get the free 30 minute interview with the right lawyer.

Be sure to take a look at the rest of our web site and see, in particular, More Bang for your Buck which gives you good advice on how to prepare for your lawyer interview, what to do with your paperwork and how to make the most efficient use of the precious resource that you pay so dearly for.

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