By Looking for a reliable family lawyer, but not sure how to go about choosing one? This article outlines four important qualities to look for. Read on to find out more.
Trust
When looking for family lawyers, you’ll want to find someone you can trust with your issue. You need to be able to have confidence that they can handle your case with their superior level of experience and skill, whether it’s concerning a will, divorce or child custody. When choosing family lawyers, make sure you ask plenty of questions about their experience in different areas of family law. Ask how many years they’ve been practising, and what outcomes their appearances in court have resulted in. You can often gauge trust on a gut instinct, through an intuition that says “yes, I can trust this person” or “no I can’t trust this person”. There’s not always a tangible reason, but you should never go against your gut feeling.
Responsiveness
It’s vital that any family lawyers you hire have a high level of responsiveness to your needs and communications. It’s simply no fun waiting around for an important call that never comes, or that comes too late. While it’s true that popular family lawyers are more in demand, they should have processes in place to keep them available to you when you need them. One work around is to have multiple contact points at the lawyer firm so you can always find someone to talk to about your urgent legal matter. When it comes to the matters that family lawyers deal with, they should appreciate that it can be a worrisome time for you, and that prompt responses to your attempts to make contact are necessary.
Communication
If your family lawyers don’t initiate a frank discussion about communication early on in the working relationship, then you need to instead. It helps to be on the same page as each other as far as communication is concerned. For this reason, make sure you make your preferences known. How often do you want contact? Do you want emails, calls or texts? It makes things much easier if you’re deliberate in asking for what you need so there are no grey areas. Another important point is that you want to choose family lawyers who explain things in a clear way in English, rather than using too much legal jargon. You will also want to avoid family lawyers who speak down to you in a rude and irritating manner.
Empathy
Empathy helps your family lawyers to connect with you and your circumstances. While they must have an objective viewpoint, they can also show some empathy for what you’re going through which will help build a connection. No-one wants to work with people they don’t like, so when you’re choosing family lawyers, make sure you find them to be likeable. This isn’t a popularity contest, however – it’s simply to ensure that you can get along and feel comfortable with the family lawyers you’ve selected.
