Guides · Choosing a lawyer
What to ask a lawyer in the first conversation
Nine questions that tell you more than any review site, and what a good answer to each one sounds like.
A first consultation is a two way interview, and most people only prepare for one direction of it. These are the questions worth asking, and what a straight answer sounds like.
1. How often do you handle this exact kind of matter?
Not the practice area, the matter. "I do family law" and "I handled eleven relocation cases last year" are very different answers. You want the second kind.
2. Who will actually work on my file?
Often it is not the person in front of you. That is not a problem in itself, but you should know, and you should know how senior they are.
3. How am I charged, and what is not included?
Get the structure and the exclusions. Costs are the usual surprise. See how lawyers charge for what to pin down in each arrangement.
4. What is the realistic range of outcomes?
A lawyer who gives you a single confident number this early is guessing. What you want is a range, plus what moves you toward the good end of it.
5. What is the likely timeline?
Ask what happens in the next thirty days specifically. Long horizons are hard to judge, but the immediate steps tell you whether they have a plan.
6. How will we communicate, and how fast?
Ask what their normal response time is for a client email. The answer is a genuine signal about how the firm is run.
7. What could make this more expensive than you expect?
Good lawyers answer this easily because they have watched it happen. Evasiveness here usually means the estimate is soft.
8. Have you handled matters against this other side before?
Against this insurer, this employer, this opposing firm, in this county. Familiarity is worth a lot and costs you nothing to ask about.
9. Is there anyone better suited to this than you?
This one is unusual and it is the most revealing. A lawyer confident in their practice will tell you honestly, and sometimes will refer you onward. That is a good sign about their judgment, not a bad one. It does not normally cost you more either, which is covered in will a referral cost me more.
General information about choosing a lawyer, not advice about your matter.