Dobry adwokat – jak wybrać, czym się kierować?

A good lawyer – how to choose, what to follow?

Sometimes it happens in life that we need a person who will represent our interests in court. Good attorney will help us go through the entire legal mangle with a relatively dry foot. Of course, it all depends on the case – even the best connoisseur will not win in a losing case for us, but he can help us reduce the damage to a minimum. 

How is he different from a solicitor? First of all, it is a lawyer who has completed an attorney apprenticeship. He can represent us in court as a defense lawyer in criminal and fiscal cases. However, he will provide us with the necessary advice in the same way as a counselor, carefully study specific provisions of the law for us and will help us. An advocate may practice his profession through an individual business activity or as a partner of the company, while the attorney-at-law must remain in an employment relationship with the entrepreneur.

Why can an attorney be useful to us ? Many people are of the opinion that since we live in the Internet age, we can check the legal acts ourselves. Nothing could be more wrong – without education, we will get lost in the maze of regulations, we will advise ourselves badly, and as a consequence we may lose the case. Of course, if we feel confident, no one will protect us from dealing with the matter on our own, but why risk it? The costs we incur may turn out to be significantly higher than the attorney’s fees.

 

What to consider when choosing such a specialist? First of all, don’t hesitate to ask about your experience. Perhaps he has dealt with a similar case in the past and knows how to handle it. If he does not inspire our confidence, then there is nothing to prevent us from talking to him. An attorney is also a human being and his best interests will be at his heart, because in this way he creates a portfolio of won or at least successfully finalized cases. He will certainly not judge, criticize or depreciate us. In terms of experience, this is obviously not a rule carved in stone.

Sometimes a young, ambitious lawyer can be a much better choice. It may turn out to be a diamond in the rough and will do the job perfectly. Especially since he will want to make a brand for himself, which makes him exceptionally well-suited to the task. It is also important to check what our future defender actually specializes in. If it turns out that it usually operates under family law, and we have a penal fiscal case, it may not be able to help us. Always look for those who have learned the inside out. They will not only have the necessary knowledge, but are also up-to-date with amendments, they know well how to navigate the complex legal newspaper related to this particular case.

It is also worth getting acquainted with the website of the law office where the lawyer operates.   Thanks to this, we will find out how long he has been in this position, with whom he cooperated, what training he has completed. This can be very valuable knowledge for us, because the more modern the approach, the greater the chance that he will understand fresh, and therefore quite complicated matters. It may even turn out that a potential judgment thanks to an efficient lawyer will be a precedent!

It is also good to check the opinion of a given lawyer. Here, the Internet can be invaluable, but we can also ask friends from the same city if anyone has dealt with it. The more positive references the better. The application is a torment and in this profession there are not so many miss the calling, but you can still find one. That is why you need to rely on specialists with an unblemished reputation. On the other hand, be wary of overly flattering comments without a single neutral or negative one. There is a rule that a dissatisfied customer will always eat up the opinion, while a satisfied customer will not necessarily.

How much do you have to pay a lawyer? The price list depends on the services, the complexity of the case, and the prestige of a given law firm. It is difficult to scratch a uniform fork. Some people think they should save and look for someone who takes a small amount of money… but price often goes hand in hand with quality in this industry.

Competition is very fierce, although the best ones will not work for the proverbial zloty. You have to calculate for yourself whether the case is worth it. Remember, however, that an attorney can negotiate the price with us. Haggling is not an insult as long as we don’t try to offend our interlocutor and scare him into going to another lawyer. On the other hand, we cannot look only at the price criterion. Just because someone counts the most in the city doesn’t mean they’re the best.

 

Do not be afraid to ask your solicitor. He takes over our problems and deals with them himself, helping us out of trouble. So he will be the person to whom we entrust our fate, so the first impression is very important. If the lawyer clearly likes us, listens to what we have to say, does not interrupt and gives directions, then we have come across a good person who will guide us through the entire procedure.

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