Let's face it. Rhode Island lawyers and lawyers generally are officers of the court. We're supposed to be servants of the general public. Yet at the same same we're independent practitioners and we we have a job to do and money to create in through our private practice or we don't survive.
It's no wonder Rhode Island Lawyers are viewed with skepticism and also cynicism, especially when it's time to hire one and you're not sure who to employ or what to do. Here you are, you've got a legal issue that should be addressed and you take the time to try to identify an attorney who will meet your needs.
It's possible for questions to surface concerning if the attorney you're interviewing is looking out for your best interests or just looking out for their own interests and making some cash to place food on his / her own table. It really is, in fact, befitting one to question the attorney's motives. The optimum time to do that is at the time you interview the attorney.
You should know that when you set up an appointment to see a lawyer, YOU are interviewing the attorney as much as the attorney is interviewing YOU.
Just how do people generally go about choosing an attorney?
1) A referral from a friend or family member.
This can be a good source of referrals for the attorney, but may be the attorney right for you personally? What did the attorney do for that family member or friend who made the referral? Did https://legal.com 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 one who used those same kind of family law services then your referral is "empty", put simply a referral should be better than just hunting around in the yellow pages. It will 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 for you, and that those services are in the area of law that you'll require help with. Without that criteria, the referral is "Empty".
2) An advertisement in the yellow pages.
This is of course a straight less effective way to decide on a suitable lawyer to interview than the referral from a family member or friend who did not utilize the attorney for the same type of legal services that you will be in need of. When you just select attorneys from the yellow pages you'll most likely do like everybody else does. You decide on the attorney using the advertisement itself, particularly its size and its own wording. Unfortunately neither of the are indicators that the attorney is competent or will serve you well in your community of law you are in need of. Suppose you are looking for a divorce attorney and you also select the attorney's advertisement this is the largest and includes the words "Estates", "ACCIDENTAL 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 it is possible to have a guess who has to pay for that single marketing ad. That is right...that attorney's clients. You can almost certainly intend to pay more for a lawyer with a decent sized yellow page ad. Conversely, that attorney might be worth it in the event that you select the ideal one.
Second, the "15 years in practice" tells you one of two things. Either that you are likely to pay more for those years of experience or that he has been doing "something" law-related for 15 years. I understand attorneys who have been in practice for twenty years and also have handled perhaps 10 divorces for the reason that period of time. By exactly the same token the advertisement above wouldn't seem as impressive in the event that you knew that the attorney only handled 4 divorces within his 15 years of practice. That may not want to function as attorney you want to represent you if you want a Rhode Island Divorce attorney and complex divorce issues regarding pensions, alimony and tax consequences on the sale of a house 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 that choose this technique of searching can head to Google.com or another search site of their choice and enter the various terms they want to search on. Searchers can also vary their keyphrases if the results usually do not suit them. The primary benefit to searching the internet to get Rhode Island attorneys to interview may be 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 if the attorney's website matches the criteria you are interested in. In this way you're getting an unbiased collection of attorney websites to review.
Secondarily, should you be searching on the web for an attorney, you will know if the attorney has a website or not. This can at least give you some indication that the attorney has kept up with technology. If she or he has done so then if it's important to manage to communicate with your attorney by email this can be a factor in your choice to interview that one 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 so as to decide which attorneys to interview.