How to choose a lawyer is a question often commented on in the Internet. The answers revolve around logical criteria such as “good reputation”, “in which city he practices”, “in which fields of activity he offers services”.
However, these tips are not very helpful because:
- More than 12,000 lawyers practice in Bulgaria. Most of them are concentrated in the big cities /Sofia – over 5000/, /Plovdiv, Varna – over 1000/. i.e. there is a large selection;
- Quite a few lawyers already have some sort of online presence – websites, blogs, social media accounts. Some are also active in traditional media. i.e. one can form some opinion from these sources. Whether it is correct is debatable;
- Online presence is often clichéd – 90% of lawyers claim through their sites that they provide legal services “in all legal areas” or “in the field of civil, administrative and criminal law”, it is almost impossible for one person to be competent in such a wide area palette of legal issues.
That’s why the key word is TRUST. The legal service is fiduciary, its success depends a lot on the trust between the parties. The client must fully trust the attorney with their case, and then trust the attorney and their proposed plan of action. The comparison with the application of medical treatment is apt – an important part of which is also the trust between doctor and patient. The doctor could not prescribe the right therapy if the patient spared him part of his problem, and the therapy would not have its full effect if the patient did not follow it strictly and doubted it.
Trust between people is difficult to build and usually takes time. However, there is no such time when a legal service is needed. How then can we practically choose a lawyer to whom we can more easily entrust the resolution of our case?
Here are some guidelines:
- Ask a close person for a referral. Consult a more experienced and/or open friend or relative who you know has used or regularly uses legal services. Ask which office he would recommend and why. Pay attention to what case he received assistance for. It is very likely that an intellectual property attorney is not good at domestic violence cases, etc. A referral from a loved one is valuable because it is assumed that they have already built trust with the attorney.
- Once you get a referral, research the lawyer online – find them on social media, see if they have a website, Google reviews. This research is not always authoritative, but it can be extremely useful in some cases – for example, to find out that the lawyer is disbarred, that he is involved in a public scandal, and why not – that he may be in a conflict of interest about your case for any reason. Pay attention to his site, if he has one – how it is made, does it express an individual approach and thought, or is it rather banal, etc. Look for other opinions among friends and acquaintances – other lawyers or even among other people if you are from a smaller town and there is a chance that they know the lawyer.
- Contact the lawyer, ask him if he would be involved in your case. For more specific matters or for commercial cases, it may be appropriate to ask for references or a presentation, on the basis of which you can judge whether the lawyer has the necessary experience to give you confidence. Make an appointment for a consultation, asking in advance how much it will cost. Bring all relevant documents you have with you to the meeting. From there, building trust and whether to engage the particular lawyer or law firm depends on personal communication between the parties.
It is good to know that the attorney-client relationship should never be “at all costs”. Don’t be afraid to ask the lawyer questions. Good law practice requires setting aside sufficient time in an appointment for a consultation, especially when meeting a potential new client for the first time. There is no shame in deciding that you will not entrust your case to the given lawyer. This is a matter AND of an inner, subjective feeling. At the same time, the paid consultation will by no means be in vain – on the one hand, it will give you experience in what kind of lawyer you are looking for, and on the other – it is quite possible that it will be correct from a legal point of view and simply be confirmed with another lawyer.
You may come across lawyers who offer a free consultation. No matter how tempting it sounds, it is not advisable to take advantage of such “offers”. Offering a free legal service initially contradicts the Law on the Bar and the Ordinance on the Minimum Amounts of Lawyers’ Fees, which means that the lawyer does not observe basic ethics towards the profession and his colleagues. And more importantly, it shows the lawyer’s own assessment of his time and work, i.e. himself shows that his service costs nothing.