Most clients scouting around for a lawyer, experience a sense of helplessness and frustration. The frustration stems from the fact that they personally lack legal knowledge and are completely unable to appreciate whether the legal issues involved in their case is simple or complex. They do not know whose opinion to trust and how to go about getting the right picture of the nature of the litigation they propose to enter into. They also do not know what kind of lawyer they should be looking for! Do they need an experienced attorney or a specialist in the area or will a general practitioner of law meet their needs?  Lawyers, like Doctors, specialize in specific areas. Like Doctors they seem to specialize in niche areas within the specialty too and charge a premium for their services! Finally, what is the right budget for the case? How much would they be expected to pay?

So, how does one go about selecting a lawyer?

Sources of Information

The simplest method of finding a lawyer is to approach legal practitioners whom you have interacted with socially for advice.  If you are lucky, they may even be able to represent you. If that does not give you comfort, your bank manager, accountant or friends who have had similar legal problems could direct you to a lawyer they trust.  You would then, get the necessary advice on the complexity of the case and the kind of lawyer you need.

If all these sources are unavailable to you, you could browse the yellow pages or advertisements that come out from time to time in appropriate media.  The Internet too, is an excellent source of information about law firms and their practice. You will be able to identify the nature of the practice and the type of cases the firm handles before you approach them with a proposal.

Choosing the lawyer

Once the complexity or simplicity of the litigation is known and the type of lawyer you require has been identified, the rest is a breeze.

You could begin with a shortlist of lawyers culled from the Internet, yellow pages or recommended by friends.

With each lawyer you meet you should obtain answers for all the questions in your list. You should
1.    Find out what is his experience in the area of litigation.
2.    Ask for an outline of how he would handle the case and the time frame for completion.
3.    Not forget to ask him whether he has malpractice insurance.
4.    Enquire about how you will be expected to participate in the proceedings.
5.    Ask him how you will be kept informed about the progress of the case.
6.    Find out whether he is willing to provide you with a fee agreement with details of fees, expenses, billing and payment information.
7.    Question him about his hourly fee and get an estimate of total fee.

Thereafter, you need to spend some time introspecting on the following and evaluate all the lawyers you meet by answering the questions:

1.    Am I comfortable with this person?
2.    Will I like working closely with him?
3.    Does the lawyer have sufficient experience and skill to handle the case?
4.    Has he explained the case to me in lay man terms so that it makes sense to me?
5.    Do I understand the proposed fee agreement and what it involves?

The lawyer who elicits the most positive response from you to the above questions is the one you must engage!

DISCLAIMER: We are not attorneys and are not giving legal advice.  For legal or financial advice please consult with your attorney or accountant.  See our Terms and Conditions for more information.

The truth is that your lawyer may or may not even know that lawsuit settlement loans are an option.

Most have heard about it and regularly refer their clients to whatever company they have worked with successfully in the past.

Actually, even though we get many clients from online marketing, word-of-mouth and other means, we still get about 50% to 60% of our business from lawyers and paralegals referring us clients.  They have simply come to realize that we offer superior service and that our rates are consistently lower than any of our competitors.  Because of this, they know it would be a disservice to their clients to send them elsewhere.

 There are other lawyers who recognize the need of lawsuit settlement loans and who simply advise that their client “find their own company”.  There are a few down-sides to this:

1. The lawfirm could get bombarded by paperwork requests if the plaintiff applies to multiple companies.
2. There are many lawsuit advance companies out there that are so disorganized it could end up taking weeks to get an advance (right now, we are averaging 3-day approval times).
3. There are companies out there that charge incredibly high interest rates.  For example, one majoy company which I won’t name recently changed it’s rate plan.  It now charges 60% FLAT if the case settles at any time in the first six months (and another 60% for each six-month period after that).  That, my friend, is what you call robbery!

The last circumstance we often encounter with lawyers is the lawyer who is recalcitrant and refuses to let his client get a lawsuit settlement loan.  This one is the most entertaining to me.  When I encounter this, I politely ask the lawyer what he has heard or what he has against lawsuit settlement loans.  Some of the false data I hear is this:

1. “The lawsuit settlement loan will interfere with my client’s case.”  This is a false idea, and it’s just a manifestation of the lawyer being careful–and you can’t blame him/her because his/her job to protect you!  But the truth is that the whole process is confidential and nobody else other than your lawyer and the funding company will know it was done.  We have even signed agreements to reassure the lawyer that nothing detrimental will happen as a result of the cash advance.
2. “You guys will rip off my client.” As I’ve described above, some companies charge very high interest rates and are practically a scam.  It’s a shame that every industry has its bad apples that create a bad reputation for the rest of us.  But the truth is that nothing is final until you and your lawyer sign the funding contract.  Before you sign it, you will be able to review all the terms with your lawyer and see that our rates really are fair–they’re consistently 40% lower than competitive offers.
3. “It’s too much paperwork.” I hear this when a plaintiff has applied to 4-5 lawsuit settlement loan companies and the lawfirm has gotten faxes and phone calls from all of them requesting the same thing.  For this, I simply explain to the lawyer that I’ll be faxing only one page and that the entire process actually requires very little paperwork.
4. The last situation I encounter is the lawyer who is unwilling to help his client and unwilling to speak to me.  You may surprised how some lawfirms treat people.  I’ve been hung up on.  I ‘ve called my client to tell them, only to have the client say that they’ve been hung up on as well.  As I mentioned above, every industry has its bad apples.  If you need a lawsuit settlement loan for your SURVIVAL and your lawyer is preventing you from doing that, you need to look at what course of action is the most survival, while realizing who works for who (clue: you don’t work for your lawyer).  Sometimes, I’ve had plaintiffs handle their lawyers who were recalcitrant.  If the plaintiff was unsuccessful in handling his lawyer, I’ve had many go find new representation that is ready to help them survive.  Listen: lawyers often come from a different lifestyle and sometimes they don’t understand what financial problems can feel like.  This doesn’t give them permission to hold you back from doing something you need to do for survival, does it?

Those are most of the situations I encounter with lawyers.  It’s very rare that there’s any problem.  98% of lawyers are more than happy to help their clients.  But even most of the 2% who aren’t are able to be handled!

 – Jason Argall