Hiring a Lawyer
Get referrals. You should create a list of lawyers you can research and potentially meet with for a consultation. To build the list, gather referrals from a variety of sources: Other tenants or landlords. If you know someone who was recently involved in a landlord-tenant dispute, then you should ask them if they would recommend their lawyer. Bar association. Most state or local bar associations have lawyer referral programs. You can contact the association and explain your situation to the lawyer or paralegal on the other end of the line. This person will then connect you with a lawyer who can handle your legal issue. Other attorneys. Other lawyers are a good source of referrals. If you used a lawyer to represent you in a criminal matter or to write a will, then reconnect. Ask the lawyer to recommend a landlord-tenant attorney who can help you. Online directories. Many websites have attorney directories. For example, FindLaw runs a directory, which you search by city or state. You can search for lawyers who handle landlord-tenant disputes.
Look at the lawyer’s website. You can get a good sense of the lawyer’s experience and capabilities by looking at his or her website. Before calling to schedule a consultation, you should look at the website. Pay attention to the following: Experience. Does the lawyer have experience with landlord-tenant disputes? Is the lawyer’s entire practice devoted to this issue? If you don’t see any landlord-tenant experience listed, then you might want to cross the lawyer off your list. Expertise. If the lawyer has written articles about landlord-tenant law, then there should be links on the website. A lawyer who regularly publishes about landlord-tenant issues probably keeps up with changes in the law. Awards. Look to see if the lawyer has received any recognition from the legal community. Grammar and spelling. Any lawyer who publishes a website full of grammatical and spelling errors probably is careless in his representation of clients as well. You should cross off your list any attorney with a sloppy website.
Schedule a consultation. Most lawyers should offer a 15-30 minute consultation. Call and schedule one. Unless you have a lot of time to spend meeting with lawyers, you might only want to schedule consultations with three or four lawyers. Ask if you will be charged for the consultation. Many attorneys now offer free consultations, while others charge a reduced fee ($50 or so). You might want to consider paying a small fee for the initial consultation. A lawyer might be willing to share more legal strategy during the consultation if you are paying. You could then use this information in case you decide to represent yourself further down the road.
Gather documents about the dispute. To have an effective consultation, the lawyer will need to know the substance of the dispute. Accordingly, you should write down a few sentences explaining the dispute. Then you should gather relevant documents and take them to the consultation. Think about bringing the following: Any notices. For example, in an eviction dispute, the landlord should serve the tenant with a Notice to Quit or a Notice to Cure. The lawyer will want to see these documents. Documentary evidence. If the tenant destroyed property, then photograph it. On the other hand, if the landlord does not heat the building properly, bring whatever proof you have, such as photographs of your thermostat. A copy of the lease, if you have one. Rent receipts or other evidence of payment history. Any court documents already filed. For example, the landlord’s or tenant’s petition or notice of petition.
Ask questions. You will have time to ask a few questions during the consultation. Prepare your questions ahead of time. You might want to ask about the following: Fees. How much does the lawyer charge? How is the fee calculated? Does the lawyer also bill for work performed by support staff? Experience. Has the lawyer represented landlords or tenants in your kind of dispute? How did the case turn out? What percentage of the lawyer’s case load consists of landlord-tenant disputes? Communication policy. How often does the lawyer communicate with his or her clients? Does the lawyer prefer email or telephone? How typically involved are clients in their lawsuits? Outcome. What are the different possible outcomes for this dispute? What does the lawyer think would be an ideal outcome.
Hire the lawyer. After meeting with the lawyers, review your notes. Decide which lawyer you liked the best. If you didn’t like any, then you will have to get more referrals and schedule more consultations. You should only hire a lawyer if you felt comfortable talking to him or her during the consultation. You will want to feel comfortable asking questions and working closely with your lawyer. Also make sure that the lawyer’s fee is reasonable. You don’t have to hire the cheapest lawyer, but you shouldn’t feel like the lawyer is charging more than you can afford. If every lawyer you had a consultation with was too expensive, then get more referrals or look for low cost legal help.
Finding Low Cost Legal Help
Find legal aid. If you don’t have much money, you should still try to find legal help. Legal aid organizations provide free legal help to people with low incomes. You can find a legal aid clinic near you by searching the Internet. You can also find a legal aid organization by visiting the Legal Services Corporation’s website at www.lsc.gov. Click on “Find Legal Help” and enter your address. A list of nearby legal aid organizations should pull up. Lawhelp.org also contains helpful information on landlord-tenant disputes. It has links to legal aid offices in each state.
Visit a law school legal clinic. Law schools often run legal clinics. In the clinic, students provide free legal services under the supervision of a clinical staff member. If you cannot afford a lawyer, then the clinic might be able to represent you in a landlord-tenant dispute. Call your nearest law school and ask if there is a clinic. If there is one, ask who you can speak to about your legal problem and ask if you need to set up an appointment.
Visit your courthouse’s self-help center. Many courts have self-help centers where staff can answer basic questions and tell you how to fill out forms. To check if a self-help center is available, visit or call your courthouse and ask. Some states now have self-help “centers” entirely online. The state of Michigan, for example, runs a website which provides legal information and links to court forms.
Ask a lawyer about “limited scope representation.” Instead of taking over your entire case, many lawyers will now offer to perform only discrete tasks. For example, you can hire a lawyer to draft a court document or to represent you at trial. You would then be responsible for handling the rest of the dispute on your own. This is called “limited scope representation” or “unbundled” legal services. Limited scope representation is a good way to keep legal fees down. You can have the lawyer handle the parts of the case you don’t understand and don't have time to learn. If you are interested, then make sure that you ask the lawyer during your consultation whether he or she offers this service.
Avoiding Bad Lawyers
Search the lawyer’s disciplinary history. Before hiring a lawyer, you should do some background research on his or her disciplinary history. Each state has a disciplinary board which gathers complaints about lawyers. If the complaint has merit, the board disciplines the attorney. To find the lawyer’s disciplinary history, you should find your state’s website. Type “attorney discipline” and “your state” into a search engine. At the website, you can then look up attorneys by name. If the lawyer has been disciplined, a notation should be made on the lawyer’s record.
Read lawyer reviews. You can also avoid a bad lawyer by reading reviews on the Internet. Many websites such as Avvo and FindLaw now allow clients to review attorneys. Often, you can find these reviews by typing the lawyer’s name into your web browser. Pay attention to patterns in the reviews. One negative review might not tell you much about the lawyer. However, if you see the same complaint repeated across several reviews, then you might want to credit it.
Look for “red flags.” There are other “red flags” you should pay attention to. Avoid any lawyer who does the following: Promises a result. A lawyer is ethically prohibited from promising a client a result. Instead, the lawyer can rely on his or her experience to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of your case. Has a messy office. When a lawyer has papers stacked up all over the place, then you can safely assume the lawyer is disorganized and maybe careless. Also, any lawyer with client files out in the open is not safekeeping client secrets. Employs rude staff. You can judge a lawyer by the quality of staff he or she employs. If the staff is unhelpful or rude, then you can assume the attorney does not value his or her clients very highly. Also, the lawyer might be out of the office too much to properly supervise employees.
End the attorney-client relationship. If you choose the wrong lawyer, then a time might come when you need to end the relationship. You generally have a right to end the relationship whenever you want and for whatever reason. You should first try to resolve the issue with the attorney. Ask why he or she made a certain decision and explain why you disagree with it. This gives the lawyer a chance to explain the decision or to correct it. See Know when to Fire Your Lawyer for tips on when to end the relationship with your lawyer.
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