What Happens During a Legal Consultation?

When you're looking to hire an attorney to help you accomplish your legal needs, many people look to Google, Bing, or other search engines to search for attorneys who specialize in the legal work they need or one who is close to them. The first step in learning about an attorney comes during the initial consultation, though most consultations are typically free, there is a limit to the information you can receive from a prospective attorney during one.

We're going to look at the consultation process and the differences between free and paid consultations to help you determine which is right for you.

What is a Legal Consultation?

A legal consultation is a chance for prospective clients with legal needs to meet (in person, over the phone, or through video chat) and discuss their legal needs with the attorney. This is where you discuss the relevant information regarding the type of legal assistance you need representation for.

During the consultation, the attorney will ask you for your description of your legal need. This is generally a brief summary of the assistance you need, however, it's necessary to be as concise as possible to the nature of your matter.

What is a Free Legal Consultation?

During free legal consultations, the attorney will ask you for your description of your legal need. This is generally a brief summary of the assistance you need, however, it’s necessary to be as concise as possible to the nature of your matter.

While some needs for representation are easily explained such as the need for a real estate contract review, or defense against a DUI arrest, other matters however, may have many layers such as starting a business, petitioning for guardianship, or other real estate needs such as wholesale real estate transactions. These more complex matters may require additional time to explain to your prospective attorney so it's recommended to write down relevant information in order to bring it up during your consultation.

Once you have discussed your legal needs with the attorney, they will discuss what legal remedies or actions they will make on your half as well as your chances of success as well as how much in legal costs to anticipate in the form of a retainer.

Retainers are initial down payments to an attorney for upcoming legal work. Retainer payments are held in a trust and all unused funds remain your money and refundable until the attorney uses those funds for your matter.

During this part of the discussion is another great time to ask additional questions you have including how many cases like yours have they had experience with, chances of success, or potential for other anticipated associated costs they may occur.

An important point to remember however, is that during a free consultation, attorneys cannot answer questions that are specific to your matter, they are allowed to answer generally, but as it involves your matter, an attorney-client relationship must be forged before these questions can be answered.

What is a Paid Legal Consultation?

The purpose of paid legal consultations is to get specific legal questions answered and actions taken pertaining to your matter. During paid consultations, an attorney-client relationship is created between the client and the attorney. Paid legal consultation can accomplish your legal goals in a number of ways, including the creation or review of a contract, filling out legal forms, and getting case-specific information you need on individual options and actions for your matter.

If you're in search of just having questions answered without anticipation of future work, attorneys typically charge a small fee for the consultations and in these instances, you can expect to pay the fee before your consultation, with your questions answered during it.

Choosing the Right Attorney

The relationship between attorneys and clients is extremely important as is the need to find a legal representative who you can trust to accomplish your legal goals.  When selecting an attorney, ensure you have an attorney with experience in your legal matter as well as one who can give you the information and facts you need in plain and easy-to-understand language.

Your attorney should be honest with you at all times as well as the chances of your success for your legal needs as well as the costs involved.

At Zara Law Group, we offer free and paid consultations to allow you to learn more about our attorneys and how we will accomplish your legal goals. Our paid consultations are designed to get legal questions answered, documents and contracts reviewed as well as address your legal needs faster. Contact us today for a free or paid legal consultation for your real estate, business, bankruptcy, family or other legal needs today.