Step one in how to win a lawsuit: Choose a lawyer

The one question I am constantly asked as a lawyer is: How do I win a lawsuit? So that all of you can benefit from this answer (and also with the hope that less people will be asking it!) I am dedicating the next ten blogs to this subject. This first blog offers my perspectives on how to select a lawyer to represent you.

Perhaps the first question is whether to use a lawyer at all, since court records today indicate that a much larger group of people are choosing to represent themselves. There is an old axiom that “lawyers who represent themselves have a fool for a client.” This axiom is based on the notion that a client is too close to his case, too emotional about his case, too involved in his case to appreciate the risks in the case and fairly and responsibly assess and respond to those risks. I might also ask whether you would feel comfortable diagnosing your own medical complaints, deciding which medications were most appropriate or performing surgery on yourself. Probably not if you care much about your personal health. In fact, there is an enormous difference in the quality of lawyers in the United States. So, the question is not whether to get a lawyer but how to find the best lawyer available.

Let’s start by saying what not to do. Do not, I repeat, do not hire a lawyer based on advertising you have seen. There is absolutely no relationship between lawyers who put out enticing television ads and the level of their legal expertise. Indeed, if there is any relationship at all, it is a negative one. Why is it, one might ask, that a lawyer needs to advertise to stay busy? The vast majority of lawyers do not advertise and instead rely on word of mouth from their current and former clients to refer new clients to their attention. If these lawyers advertised as well, they’d have too much to do.

Then does this mean that lawyers who put their pictures on TV, in newspaper ads and magazine ads don’t have enough clients? But why wouldn’t they have enough clients from referrals from all the clients they have represented in the past? Especially lawyers who advertise almost incessantly...why aren’t all the clients they get from previous ads sending new clients to them? There are only two explanations for this – either they do not have enough clients because they are not very good or they just want to get you into their office and then turn your case over to some other lawyer in their office, someone who does not have enough clients on his own. Trust me on this; I have been trying lawsuits for over 42 years, and far and away the best lawyers I go up against have never advertised once in their lives.

So what do you do? Here are a few quick bullet points.

• Find a specialist. The best lawyers, like doctors, specialize in very narrow areas of the law. They specialize for two reasons: first, they recognize that law is extremely complex these days, and they want to focus on a single specialty so they will gain outstanding reputations and provide excellent legal service for their clients. Second, once they achieve outstanding reputations in their area, they get lots of referrals in that field, allowing them to keep the focus where they want it. When you interview a lawyer, ask him specifically how much of his time is spent on cases that resemble yours. If it’s less than 50%, that is a red flag to consider.
• Find a lawyer with substantial experience. Just like everything else, experience makes a big difference. A brilliant lawyer with only a few years experience is probably not as good as a lawyer of lesser intellect who has been practicing in a given field for many years.
• Find a lawyer who has tried a lot of cases. Ask lawyers who wants to represent you how many cases they have tried in their career, as well as during the last two years. Believe it or not, there are many lawyers who call themselves trial lawyers or litigators who have never tried a single case. In fact, it is even possible to be certified as a Specialist in Civil Litigation by many state bar associations without ever having tried a lawsuit. Crazy, I know, but the big firm lawyers lobbied that through so they could get their lawyers certified even though most of them have not tried any cases.
• One final point – personally interview all lawyers who wants to represent you and ask them a lot of questions about themselves and their backgrounds and about exactly how they would handle your case. If you do not feel comfortable with their answers, go somewhere else. If a lawyer cannot impress you when he or she is trying to get your business, you will never be impressed.

If you are interested in this topic you might want to consider checking out my novel The Litigators, a harsh but real criticism of the American legal system. You will see how aggressive and well-intended lawyers can go astray and lose sight of their clients’ best interests. It was published by Scarletta Press, won a merit award for fiction, and is available in paperback or digital format at Amazon or Scarletta.

Join me next week for Step two in how to win a lawsuit: Choosing the best lawyer