How to hire an attorney?

Yesterday, we went to New York City because we needed to hire an attorney for some legal work. My wife had known an attorney for about 12 years because at one time she had helped her with a legal matter. Over the years, she would go consult her if there was a legal issue that she needed some advice on. The attorney did not charge earlier anything for a brief chat though during last couple of years she charged just $50 for answering some basic questions. In fact she was so good that even if you did not hire her, she would not decline to see you next time. In many cases, she would even suggest how you could do something on your own.

So when we showed up this time to see her, they had moved to another building and we did not make much of it. But when we showed up in the lobby, the name of the law firm was different. When we spoke to the receptionist, she explained that two firms had merged, which was fine by us. But as we were speaking to the receptionist, there was this man (dressed in a suit) who was listening carefully to us. We didn't bother because we were there to see Maria, our attorney. Even before we could realize, he jumped into the conversation and asked us to join him so that he could get some basic information before we went to see Maria.

As soon as we sat down in the small conference room, my wife and I soon realized that we were with a used-car-salesman-turned-attorney. They guy wanted us to hire him right away, pay a deposit of $100 just to get started, and then pay him $3,000 for the whole case. We understood that the fee structure was within the prevailing fee structure for such cases but what really turned us off was his sales approach. Of course, we never hired him.

Tips on hiring an attorney

• Seek a personal reference even if it is from a stranger (so it is not a bad idea to surf the Internet to find an attorney).
• Don't get pushed to agree to do something just because the attorney terrorizes you either by selling too hard or by making you feel that your case is too complicated and only he can 'save' you.
• If you don't know what to do, ask for time to think, come back and do some research for the attorney/firm, and unless you are positive that s/he is the best attorney on the planet for you, keep looking. There are many good attorneys out there; you just have to find them.
• You don't need an attorney for many things. If you are willing to do some hard work yourself, you can save thousands of dollars.