Meeting with a Lawyer

# Treat your first meeting as a business consultation. Dress well and be prompt. Be polite and courteous. You will want to impress the lawyer, just as he or she will be trying to impress you.

# Give a lawyer the chance to get to know you. Don't feel compelled right off the bat to blurt out everything you want to tell the lawyer about your legal issues or needs. Many times, a lawyer will want to get some background on you and even shoot the breeze a bit. This opportunity will provide both you and the lawyer with the chance to evaluate each other on an informal basis

# Let the lawyer lead the discussion. You will have all sorts of information that you will want to relate, and the lawyer may want you to talk at length about your situation. However, the lawyer may also want to ask you questions in order to hone in on the background facts that he or she feels are relevant or important. The more prepared you are in this regard with completed questionnaires, documents, and your own questions, the easier this process will be, and the more you will impress the lawyer.

# During your initial consultation, you will want to share all relevant information with the lawyer. Even if you don't end up hiring the lawyer, everything you tell him or her during your meeting is subject to the attorney-client privilege, so candor is in your best interests. You gain nothing by not revealing information to your attorney. Since it is relevant to many elder law matters, you should answer honestly and completely the lawyer's questions about your financial information.

# The lawyer may give you alternatives as to what you can do, and you should discuss relevant considerations with respect to each option. Look for practical legal advice that in your own mind translates into good sense.

# Depending up on how well prepared you are, the lawyer may even be able to give you advice and counsel on how to proceed with respect to your situation. This could be especially important when time is of the essence. For example, if your spouse is in a nursing home, it may be important to get started right away on protecting your assets.

# By the end of your meeting, you should leave with a clear understanding of what you have accomplished. If the lawyer is willing to take your case, you should be told how he or she charges for services. You may be presented with a contract that is called a retainer agreement or a legal services agreement. The lawyer should explain it to you. Read and understand the document before you think about signing it. At that time, or before services are rendered, you may also be asked to provide a retainer or deposit up front. Make sure you understand the basis for the fee being charged (hourly? Fixed fee?) and how often you will be expected to make payment. Will you get monthly statements? Periodic requests to make retainers or deposits?

(source: elder-law.lawyers.com)

Selecting a Good Lawyer

Most elder law attorneys do not specialize in every one of these areas. So when an attorney says he or she practices Elder Law, find out which of these matters he or she handles. You will want to hire the attorney who regularly handles matters in the area of concern in your particular case and who will know enough about the other fields to question whether the action being taken might be affected by laws in any of the other areas of law on the list. For example, if you are going to rewrite your will and your spouse is ill, the estate planner needs to know enough about Medicaid to know whether it is an issue with regard to your spouse's inheritance.

Unfortunately, there are some attorneys who hold themselves out as "elder law attorneys" but who have little or no experience in this area of practice. They recognize that the aging of America represents a business opportunity for them and they hope to "cash in." (This is not limited to lawyers, by the way. Financial planners, insurance agents, accountants, and bankers, to name just a few other occupations, have been known to do the same thing.) For that reason, you will want to be particularly careful in narrowing down your selection of an elder law attorney.

If you don't already have a list of prospective lawyers, a great place to start your search is right here at lawyers.com. You can do a free search to come up with a list of lawyers by using the Find A Lawyer search box that can be accessed from anywhere on lawyers.com. (You should see a search box on the right side of your computer screen.)

Once you have a list of lawyers, use the following guidelines to do some initial screening and narrow your list down to three or four prospective candidates:

* Look at biographical information, including whatever you can find on Web sites for the lawyers and their law firms. Do they appear to have expertise in the area of elder law that you need? Do they have any information on their Web sites that is helpful to you?
* Use search engines to surf the Web. Do searches under the name of the lawyer and his or her law firm. Can you find any articles, FAQ's or other informational pieces that the lawyer has done that that give you a level of comfort?
* Ask other people if they have heard of the attorneys and what they think about them.
* Contact your state bar association or visit the bar association's Web site to find out if the lawyer is in good standing.

(source: elder-law.lawyers.com)

Type of Law and Lawyer

Comparative Law A lawyer who chooses this specialty must have a good working knowledge of the laws, society, and government of at least one country other than the United States. This usually means that the lawyer has attended both college and law school in the United States as well as a formal educational institution in the foreign country with whose affairs s/he will eventually work. The comparative lawyer works with international relations in trade and commerce, travel, government business, and many other areas depending upon the breadth of his/her knowledge and the needs of his/her employer. The field of comparative law is one in which there is a great deal of opportunity for advancement and challenging work. Comparative lawyers may find their employment with business firms, with government organizations, or with any person or group which deals with countries other than the United States.

Environmental Law One of the newest entries in the legal world, environmental law requires a concern for the nation's resources, knowledge of where the resources are, what they are used for, how and why they may be endangered or exploited, and whose job it is to protect them. Environmental lawyers may work alone or in and for groups whose job it is to prosecute offenders and remedy the offending situation. On the other side of the coin, environmental lawyers may represent the "offenders" to prove why the exploitation is not bad or is not what it seems to be. Finally, they may mediate between concerned groups and help generate arrangements which will benefit the country, the consumers, and the corporation.

Patent Law Patent Law is the only legal specialty officially recognized by the American Bar Association. It is also one of the few areas of legal practice which requires a specific educational background usually in the natural sciences, mathematics, or engineering. This background is required because the work a patent lawyer does is to see that no one has already patented a client's idea and that no one "borrows" the client's idea after it has been patented. To do this the lawyer must thoroughly understand the client's idea and be able to ascertain whether differences occur in similar ideas or if, indeed, the idea has already been used or is being "borrowed". Patent lawyers are usually employed by large firms whose research teams may constantly be coming up with new ideas to be protected, or by large law firms where they handle individual clients and companies who seek the advice of the lawyer. Sometimes patent lawyers enter private practice and work as representatives to individuals and companies.

What is Lawyers

Lawyers interpret the law through actions and words for the protection of an individual, a business concern or an idea. They must be widely versed in a great many areas: the law, economics, history, human motivation and behavior, and the practicalities of day to day living. The education of lawyers never ends because they must constantly be abreast of information which may be of use to the client.

As our society grows in complexity, the lawyer's role grows as well. No longer is it possible for one single lawyer to handle every aspect of every client's legal needs. Although well informed as to the tax implications of stock market transactions, a lawyer may not know enough to cover adequately the client's requirements for divorce proceedings, for instance. For this reason, the vast majority of today's lawyers are specifying the types of clients and cases which they will serve. It is important to understand, however, that even though the legal profession itself is specializing, the law school and prelegal education remain general in nature. Any specialization you choose to follow must take place after you graduate from law school, pass the bar examination, and enter the professional world. The type you choose to practice may depend upon employment conditions when you begin, your personal interest and background, the amount of money you want to earn, the area of the country in which you want to live, etc. If you enjoy working with numbers or have a great concern for the welfare of society, you're a natural for some particular legal specialties; see descriptions below.

So how can you know if you'll like being a lawyer? The practice of law includes so many alternatives that it is difficult to generalize at all. Many lawyers in large corporate firms concentrate their efforts in mastering one particular area of specialization within the law, e.g. the intricacies of tax law. These attorneys often serve primarily as advisors to corporate clients, rarely being involved with taking a case to court. Litigation lawyers, on the other hand, prepare and present cases in court or negotiate to settle the case before the scheduled court appearance. Practicing law in a small town or with a small community-based firm often means taking whatever cases walk through the door. This kind of practice tends to focus more on the daily legal needs of individuals - drawing up wills or deeds, filing for divorces, getting someone out of jail on bond, settling personal damage suits in court - rather than the more technical and specialized needs of corporate clients. Success is often due more to the quality of your personal interactions and persuasiveness than to your intellectual capabilities

(source: udel.edu)