Tips For Talking With a Lawyer

When you need a lawyer, they can be your best friend and best support. A good lawyer will work with you when you need legal help, to help you understand the situation better, and help you to get the best result they can. In order to support you, they need a client that they can work with. Here’s how to be that. 

The First Call

When you first need to call your lawyer for quality legal representation, whether for divorce or help with a will, you should have as much information as possible ready to supply them with. A productive first conversation will give you and your lawyer a clear idea of whether you can work together. Most of us assume that lawyers just take any case, but the relationship has to work both ways. Your lawyer is your legal representation, which means you have a say in things too. 

The first call you make should give you a feel for the lawyer, their experience, and how comfortable you feel with them. For your lawyer, your call is for them to gauge your trustworthiness, the legitimacy of your claim or defense, and how successful they could be if they were to take you as a client. 

You need to make sure the relationship is productive. If you have questions, ask them. Your lawyer should be able to explain things to you in a clear way. 

Be Honest

Once you have found a lawyer that you can work with, you need to put all your cards on the table. The first rule of working effectively with your lawyer is to be honest and truthful at all times. The conversations you have with your lawyer are protected by law, so you don’t have to keep secrets. 

There are two people that you should not lie to; your doctor and your lawyer. A lawyer can’t help you with your case unless you’re one hundred percent honest with them. They need to know what the other side could use against you. Whether they’re helping you with a divorce case and know you had an affair, or you’re worried about money in a contracts dispute, don’t try to keep things from your lawyer. Honesty will make your case go a lot more smoothly which can cost you less money in the long run. 

The importance of honesty can’t be underestimated when you work with your lawyer. The last thing that your lawyer needs is to be taken by surprise by something that comes out during the case that they should have known about from the beginning. Whatever it is, tell your lawyer so they can prepare and adjust their case around this information. If you’re holding onto some information and don’t know if it’s relevant to the case, ask your lawyer. Don’t hide information because you think it’s not important. Too much information is better than not enough. They’re your legal representation and they need as much information from you as possible to do their job.