Free Lawyers

There are many different qualities that people assume make a lawyer a good one. Most commonly, people think the top five qualities of a top lawyer are:

1. The number of cases they’ve won.
2. The high amount of money they make (and thusly charge).
3. The nature of their defense and prosecution techniques.
4. The number of high profile clients they have.
5. The ability to charm a jury and the media.

However, the true qualities of a top lawyer do not include any of the above five examples. Those qualities are the perception of a top lawyer, but it isn’t what you would look for in a lawyer if you were to require one to try a case for you or a loved one.

Excellent lawyers have a very different set of skills that make them a top lawyer, and chances are they aren’t rich, don’t have high profile clients, don’t have a reputation for being ruthless and likely have a high moral reputation instead.

Let’s look at the top five qualities of a top lawyer that will help you choose one should you require their services.

1. Good Communication Skills
A top lawyer will have excellent communication skills – not just to wow a court room, charm a jury or appease the media, but also to converse with their clientele of any gender, religion, race, color or creed, discuss issues with other lawyers, perhaps even the opposing lawyer in a court case. Communication skills are expansive and are a pinnacle quality of a top lawyer.

2. Consistency, Persistence and Reliability
A top lawyer will be consistent and reliable. You should have access to your lawyer to speak with him or her on a regular basis without being waylaid by their secretaries at every turn. Reliability is important to ensure that your lawyer will do what they say they will do, and that their methods within your case are consistent. Your lawyer should be persistent in championing for you (their client) and what is in your best interest and the best interest in upholding the law.

3. Logical and Knowledgeable
Any lawyer should possess logical thinking skills – the ability to work through issues in theory and logically deduce the best course of action. They should be able to think ahead of the game and be knowledgeable about their client, the case, the opposition and of course, the law.

4. Value for Money
A top lawyer does not necessarily need to charge an exorbitant fee. A top lawyer should, instead, deliver value for your money. Fees should be in line with the services they offer and should be reachable, affordable and unquestionably clear.

5. Accepts their weakness and is able to ask for help
No one, not even a top lawyer, has all the answers all the time. Therefore, it is important that a lawyer be able to accept and acknowledge their weaknesses in order to perform at their highest abilities. A top lawyer will be able to ask for help when they need it, from whatever source is best to receive the answer. Putting pomp and circumstance aside, as well as ego and pride, a top lawyer is not afraid to admit they just don’t have an answer but does promise to find one and then works hard to do so.

Today, it can be difficult to wade through the popular opinion of what makes a top lawyer in order to find one that truly has the skills, traits, personality and ethics that make a lawyer an excellent practitioner.

By: Mark Warner

No one necessarily wants to be in a position where they have to seek legal counsel for any situation. When lawyers get involved, that’s usually when things get ugly for some, if not all of the parties involved. If you are involved in a situation where you need representation from a good criminal lawyer, it helps to know what to look for in the best criminal lawyers.

Here are some very important qualities that you should look for before obtaining legal counsel:

Tenacity

A good criminal lawyer will never say die, they will be ever prepared to do what it takes to get the win. Long, long hours pouring over every little bit of information available – studying case files, interviewing witnesses and seeking new information that even the police haven’t found are all things that your lawyer should be doing for you. If your lawyer is getting eight hours of sleep a night while representing you than he isn’t doing enough to win the case and earn his fee.

Reputation

A good criminal lawyer will be known and recognized in the community, you will have heard their name and seen their face because they are ever determined to win and will want everyone in the community to know how hard they work. A good criminal lawyer’s reputation for success will most certainly precede them.

Experience

Practicing law is a very tricky and difficult occupation, requiring thousands and thousands of hours of study and experience ‘in the trenches’ to truly perfect. You want a criminal lawyer that has dozens, or better yet hundreds, of cases under his or her belt. With every case tried a good lawyer will learn something that they didn’t have up their sleeve before and you’ll want the benefit of all of those tricks present in the lawyer that is going to be representing you. It’s even better if the lawyer has a good bit of experience representing people in cases similar to yours – some will say that experience is experience, but there are some inherent pitfalls that come with trying certain cases and the more experience your lawyer has dealing with the actual specifics that he or she will encounter with your case, the better prepared her or she will be.

High Workload

If you call a lawyer to make an appointment and they tell you that they are available any day at any time, that is not a good sign. You want a lawyer that you have to fight to get an appointment with; because that means that they are working. An overly busy lawyer normally gets to be overly busy by winning cases, if a lawyer tells you that he has unlimited availability then they probably haven’t done to well for themselves in the courtroom. It’s much better to be squeezed in by a winning lawyer and give yourself the best chance of getting top quality representation than to choose your appointment time with a lawyer who’s got too much time on his hands and set yourself up for defeat.

Local Office

You’ll want a lawyer who’s got a local office rather than someone from outside of the jurisdiction. A local lawyer will often have solid relationships with many of the judges and many of the prosecutors that you’ll be appearing before. If your case happens to be one of the many that will be pleaded out to avoid trial, than those close knit relationships with the judges and the prosecution could come in very, very handy in your particular case.

Depending on your case, your choice of legal representation could very well be a life altering decision. Don’t pick blindly from the phone book, do all of the appropriate and necessary research to ensure that you are getting the best possible representation that you can afford for your particular case because that’s the only way that you’ll truly be able to feel confident going into the trial.

By: Amy Nutt