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Do I Need A Lawyer

Just about any lawyer can tell you a half a dozen horror stories about people who tried to represent themselves in important court matters and ended up getting hung out to dry. In any important legal matter, in my humble opinion, anyone who has the financial means to hire a lawyer but tries to represent themselves in court in order to save money, has a fool for a client. If your doctor told you that you had a brain tumor, would you immediately go down to the local medical supply store and by a scalpel and a mirror?

On the other hand, it is true that there is no absolute law to have any attorney in just about any kind of legal proceeding.

I would venture to say that the large majority of cases that I have seen in traffic court and domestic violence cases, most people in court, in fact, come to court without an attorney. Sometimes they don't seem to hurt themselves, and sometimes they cause themselves major headaches.

As a general rule, I would say that anyone who is involved in an important legal dispute should hire an attorney if they can afford one. Lawyers do, in fact, learn important concepts and legal rules when they go to law school. In addition, their experience in court over the years gives them a tremendous advantage over someone who has not had this experience.

As a general rule, I would advise anyone involved in the following legal matters to retain or consult a lawyer: divorce, paternity (parentage cases), adoption, any lawsuit where they are named as a plaintiff or defendant, any case in which they are arrested or charged with a crime, any serious personal injury, any important financial or tax matter, preparation of a will or trust, any proceeding in a court or before a government agency, and excessive debts or bankruptcy.

If you are involved in one of these situations and want an attorney, how can you make sure that you get a good attorney? Keep in mind that good attorneys are not always available when you need them. Attorneys who are always available when you need them are not necessarily good; and the best attorney in any given situation is not necessarily the cheapest attorney. If you had to find a doctor to remove a lung tumor, I would advise calling all of the surgeons in the Yellow Pages to find the cheapest one.

The best way to find a good attorney is by following the recommendation of friends, family or co-workers. Another way to get a good referral is to call a lawyer you have used in the past on a different subject.

One way to find a good attorney is to go to the reference section of the library and look at the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory. Martindale-Hubbell is an independent company which has a system for listing attorneys by area of practice, and then rating them. Martindale-Hubbell's rating system consists of providing questionnaires to reputable attorneys and then asking them to rate their peers. The highest rating an attorney can get is "A" (for competence) - "V" (for very high ethics).

The various county bar associations have lists of attorneys by specialty and will refer you to an attorney on this list at no charge. There is, however, a small fee usually charged at the time of your initial consultation with the lawyer. This fee is collected by the lawyer and then paid to the bar association to help fund the referral system. Here are some phone numbers: King County (206) 623-2551, Pierce County (253) 383-3432.

It is very rare that an attorney who has no valid license to practice actually attempts to do so. However, if you wish to check on the status of any attorney's license, you can call the Washington State Bar Association at (206) 727-8200.

In certain situations, you may be able to get a free attorney to represent you. There are agencies called Legal Aid Services which provide free or low cost legal assistance to people with low income and no assets. They do not provide free legal services in all situations, even for those who are genuinely poor. For example, they do not represent people in criminal cases or personal injury cases where the client should be able to obtain an attorney on a contingency fee basis.

Minors and citizens with low incomes can be represented in criminal cases by a public defender. In such a case, the judge will appoint the public defender (or sometimes a private attorney at state expense) to represent the defendant free of charge.

People who are seriously injured can consult a personal injury attorney and usually will be represented on a contingency fee basis. In those cases, the lawyer will be paid out of the proceeds recovered on behalf of the client. Very often, the contingency fee will provide that the lawyer will get 25% or more of the amount of settlement or judgment.

There are also groups of lawyers who agree to represent on a low or no-cost basis. One such group is the Northwest Women's Law Center which represents women in a variety of subject areas.

The Washington State Bar Association also has a "pro bono" program for people who fall through the cracks because they don't have enough money to hire an attorney but have too high of an income or too much in the way of assets to qualify for free legal services. Lawyers in the pro bono program are from all types of law firms including some of the best and most highly paid law firms. These law firms donate a certain amount of time to the Bar Association from their attorneys in order to support the Bar Association's pro bono program. More information can be obtained by calling the Washington State Bar Association at (206) 727-8200.