| Are Attorney Matching Services A Good Idea? |
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| Written by Carlos Sandoval |
| Tuesday, 02 November 2010 22:22 |
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Attorney matching services are a recent phenomenon in the world of finding an attorney online. The big three of these services are Legalmatch, Findlaw, and Legalfish. All of these services will allow the posting a specific legal problem by clients seeking lawyers. Depending on your local area, these services will then show your case to several attorneys who may post a response.
Attorney matching services are a recent phenomenon in the world of finding an attorney online. The biggest three are Legalmatch, Findlaw, and Legalfish. All of these services will allow the posting a specific legal problem by clients seeking lawyers. A selection of available attorneys interested in the practice area will review the responses. One considerable advantage of these services is that they allow participants to state the level of privacy that they desire. It's up to the users if they want to show their contact information to any attorney that reads their case or if they want to see if the attorney can present a credible review or action plan before revealing their information. This makes these solutions especially suited to the locally prominent or paranoid. An initial check of the attorneys bar status and a minimal level of malpractice insurance will be required before an attorney enrolls in any of these programs. Don't be overly impressed by this; however, remember these services are all primarily designed as marketing. In today's society, the consumer at the end of the day will always bear the responsiblity of due diligence. These services try to require that attorneys provide proof of good standing registered with lawyer's applicable bar. If you are concerned with either of these, then it's not a bad practice to inquire of any attorney that you are considering, as the services don't require continuing checks and an attorney might be with a service for several years. These services will charge responding lawyers from several to ten of thousands of dollars for the right to respond to your case. Naturally, requiring a substantial investment in a practice area will be a market of a legitimate interest in that type of case. It's a common marketing strategy to claim an expertise in virtually any practice area. Spending alot of money on something will naturally bring on volume and that leads to expertise. The response of an attorney clearly can tell you that attorney is really looking for new work and is available. A matching service's characteristics cleary indicate a low pressure way of finding an attorney. You also won't incur travel time, consultation fees, or the phone tag usually required of checking out alot of different lawyers. Attorneys can take several days to think up an appropriate response, so these services might not be ideal for those with an urgent need. In addition, the high fees mean there will not be a large number of responding attorneys. It can be helpful to send an attorney a message to call once you've read a response. Remember, attorneys have to deal with alot of eccentric individuals who overestimate their cases and can't pay so by taking the time to register for these services and type out your case you're letting the attorney know you're a serious prospect. Overall, for more complex cases, these can be an excellent service for both attorneys and consumers. Contested family law cases, especially, can be an excellent choice for these services with a very high level complexity, frequent out of area cases, and a need for an attorney who really takes on a number of the cases. The least productive areas would be bankruptcy or real estate closings where the essential elements of the case do not require much in the way of specialized consultations and can be easily price shopped without the need for an in-person consultation. DISCLAIMER: This article is provided as information only and is not to be taken as financial advice. Check out the legal resources of a Memphis Bankruptcy Attorney and examine the elements of Chapter 7 bankruptcy. |