Sign that you hire a not good lawyer

In a perfect world, every lawyer would be a perfect match for every client. In the real world, your attorney’s personality and style need to match your needs as well as satisfy your legal goals. Sometimes even the best attorney in the courtroom and office can cause you additional stress and money.

There are currently 1,015 in the UAE, but that doesn’t mean they’re all good. If you need a lawyer to defend you, whether you were wrongly accused of a crime or to help you settle a divorce, you want to make sure you hired a good one

1. Poor Communication -If you find yourself feeling frustrated because you are unable to get a response or answer from your attorney or his office it may be time to get a new attorney. Before you change horses in the middle of a stream consider whether there is no communication or just not the communication you need or want. Today, many lawyers are text-ters, or facebookers, or emailers, or callers. That works great if you utilize the same communication medium, if you don’t the problem might not be the lawyer or his communication skills just an interface problem. When hiring an attorney determine before you leave the initial meeting how infomation will be communicated to you, how court dates and expectations will be relayed to you, and what you can do if you are not getting what you need in response to your concerns. Some offices have 24 hour message return, night emails, or texted reponses. My office policy is simply if you don’t get an answer on your second call, set a phone conference with the person you need to talk to. Phone conferences can often be done during court breaks, lunch, or even driving in traffic.
2. Lack of Enthusiasm– One of the biggest parts about being a lawyer is convincing the jury to go in your favor. If your attorney isn’t enthusiastic about your case or seems unsure, that should raise some red flags. But, another bad sign to watch out for is if they seem overconfident. While it’s good to be enthusiastic about a case outcome, their job is to be realistic and prepare you for any scenario which can occur.
3. Lack of Decisiveness– From the first meeting with your lawyer they should be able to lay out a plan for how to proceed with your legal matter. Yes, sometimes it requires they reseach a particular issue or law, but reseaching should be step one in the plan. A lawyer who says give me your money and has no plan, has a plan, and that plan is to take your money. Any time you talk to your attorney, they should be able to tell you what is the next step in your case.
4. Unclear Billing– We mentioned it earlier and we’ll say it again – lawyers aren’t cheap. It’s not always their fault, it’s just the price of the service. But, if you hire a lawyer and you’re seeing excessive or overbilling charges, something’s wrong. If you lawyer is overbilling you, they could be inflating a task time, also know as “padding time”. Here are some other fees or unclear billing to watch out for:

• Vague billing
• Hidden expenses
• Surcharge on legal expenses

You should never receive a bill with vague information. Each bill should clearly explain what the charge was for, who performed it, when, and for how long.

Some law firms add surcharge fees to simple tasks or items such as postage or copying; these fees are unethical and inappropriate. If you see any billing fees that are unexplained and unclear, don’t be afraid to ask your lawyer what they’re for.

5. No Results – In almost any type of legal case there will be lulls where there is not much being done on any particular week or month. If your lawyer has explained the plan and you can communciate with them you should not have to worry if there is nothing done for periods of time. On the other hand if nothing ever seems to be done, no court dates are planned, no back and forth with the other side, and never any new information, it may be time to get a different lawyer. Too many people watch their retainers drain away with no solid idea of where the money went and no progress being shown. This leads to you running out of money, being fired by the attorney, and then having to hire another, hopefully more compentent lawyer, to finish the job on less funds than you had when you started the case. Hundreds of times I have had clients come in having spent thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars in fees and have very little to nothing accomplished on their cases. The irony here is that the lawyer who steps up and basically completes the matter get pennies on the dollar compared to the lawyer who sat on the case for months.

There are so many things to consider when hiring a lawyer, and once you’ve found one you have faith in and feel confident working with, it’s hard to see some of these telltale signs. If you notice any of these 6 signs, don’t be afraid to switch attorneys and start new.

If you need legal help and want to avoid hiring a bad lawyer, check out our website. Dalilvision have a list of good lawyer in uae.