The Court Of Public Opinion

With the explosion of the internet, finding the lawyer that you need for your case just seem to be the next natural thing to do since the internet is the leading source of information. Not only that, the Internet also provides the necessary information that you need about the lawyers to engage the right person to take on the case. By doing a search in the search engine, you will get listing of lawyers in which you can narrow down your searches to those in your area.

As the legal system is a complex system, it is better to find a lawyer to represent you even though you can be spending a lot of money to seek legal advice from a lawyer. In fact, it may actually turn up to be a good investment that can save you a lot of time, money and effort.

As every lawyer specializes in different field of the law, it is very important to find the right lawyer who has the expertise and experience to efficiently represent a client in regards to the legal problem. This is especially important when you need good legal advice to protect your financial interests, comply with government rules and regulation for your business or keeping your properties from fraudulent individuals.

Thus, if you really need legal advice from a lawyer, you should approach the lawyer early as they would need time to prepare and analyze your case. You will find that things will be much clearer to you after talking to the lawyer and you will have a better perspective of the situation. You would also have a better idea of the decision that you may undertook and the kind of consequences that came along if you took that course of action.

When engaging a lawyer, do also consider the various factors that determine your lawyer’s fee as you wouldn’t want to have a leave a ‘dent’ in your bank account. Some of the common factors that affect lawyer’s fees would include advice, outcome, overhead, experience, time and effort, difficulty of case, prominence of lawyer, geographical location.

Communicate with the lawyer and agree upon the type of payment that suits your paying capabilities before you commence with any legal proceedings. By doing so, will ensure that you will have a smooth relationship with your lawyer towards the success of your case.

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Lets face it typically, attorney fees are not cheap. In addition to paying an hourly rate, some attorneys may charge per item, which would include such tasks as phone calls, written letters, meetings, car mileage, document filing, and other administrative tasks. For most individuals or corporations in need of legal services, price becomes a significant factor. For certain professional services we want the best but we also want it at the best price. Increasingly there are attorneys who offer alternative pricing arrangements and can work out an agreement that fits your budget. However, just as price cannot determine the skill and service of a physician or accountant it should also not be the deciding factor when hiring a legal professional.

The catch is that not all cheap attorneys provide bad services and that not all high-paid attorneys provide good services. When hiring an attorney, you want to hire the most competent professional that your money can buy. The hourly billing fee is not a measurement of competence. A high priced attorney is not necessarily more competent than a lower priced attorney. Either is capable of inefficiency or worse mistakes that can cost you even more money in the end.

Hourly fees are not a good indicator of competency but they can be extremely misleading. An attorney may advertise his or her services as being much lower than another attorney would offer but in reality the services could be much higher. For instance, an attorney may advertise a rate of $100 per hour compared to the area average of $150 per hour. Believing that you are getting a deal you hire the lower priced attorney. However, you then discover the services rendered such as filing court documents, setting up meetings, phone conversations, research, etc is taking 50% longer to complete than they would have with the higher priced firm. What would have taken the $150 firm 4 hours to complete and cost you $600.00, takes the lower priced firm 7 hours to complete for $700.00.

Legal providers are service professionals much like a physician or a CPA. When hiring a service provider you are looking for someone experienced in your area of need that can offer you the most efficient solution. Your legal professional should have access to the resources needed and be able to perform the service with a high degree of efficiency. In example, if you are a technology firm considering a joint venture with another firm, you would likely look for a firm that has some expertise in joint ventures and a track record with other technology firms. Hiring a firm that specializes in Real Estate would probably not be the most efficient route to take. Legal efficiency is more important than the rate. You want the shortest route to success and to achieve this your firm must have competence, and sufficient access to resources.

Having access to resources does not necessarily depend on the size of the firm. If you needed legal assistance with a large contract, hiring a one person firm that specializes in contract law would be wiser than handling a ten person firm that specializes in International Law. Resources extend beyond human capital to include things such as specialized knowledge (or access through outsourcing).

To gain the most for your dollar you should also have a firm understanding of how your legal professional will handle your work. If you hire a large firm, will your business be handled by paraprofessionals, associates or senior attorneys? You will want tasks to be managed by the appropriate level of staff and of course you should be billed accordingly.

Finally if you hire a law firm for their area of expertise, make sure that the firm actually has access to that knowledge. Can they quickly access information? Do they have in-house knowledge or do they outsource? Is there a standard data retrieval method in place? Dont be afraid to ask questions about process before you hire an attorney. They are service providers and most will be happy to demonstrate how they will work with you, which will be a good predictor of a successful and efficient working relationship.

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For most people, talking to an attorney usually means that someone is in trouble. And if youre the one whos calling an attorney, chances are the person in trouble is you or someone you know.

Attorneys are usually best-known as a last resort for helping people stay out of trouble. But attorneys also provide other value-added services to both individuals and businesses.

Maybe attorneys have gotten a bad reputation because of the way society portrays them in the media. After all, attorneys arent exactly painted in the most flattering light. Weve all read about the high-profile cases and the huge million-dollar settlements. Weve all seen the attorneys portrayed on television as being greedy, indifferent, and overly-concerned with their fees. In fact shows like Boston Legal not only entertain viewers with the antics of their behavior but win awards for doing it! And, of course, weve all heard the lawyer jokes.

But despite what youve heard or read, or what your personal feelings about attorneys might be, attorneys do provide a valuable and much-needed service in a number of different areas. In addition to their main duties of upholding the law and protecting clients rights, here are just a few other areas in which attorneys add value to businesses.

-They help resolve legal disputes -They help prevent legal problems or limit their consequences -They provide legal representation if youre arrested for a crime -They can handle the legal aspects of starting a business and forming a partnership or corporation -They can provide counsel on local, state and federal tax matters -They represent your interests in a lawsuit -They provide legal counsel when filing for bankruptcy -They can protect you against claims from customers or other businesses -They can identify business risks you may not be aware of -They can help you stay in compliance with rules and regulations in your business or industry -They can defend you in court -They can handle negotiations on your behalf -They can assist with general corporate matters -They can assist with mergers and acquisitions -They can advise on intellectual property matters such as copyrights, patents and trademarks -They can handle matters of Labor and Employment law, workplace safety issues, unions, and government compliance

Now, a lot of these areas of law may not seem very exciting or glamorous. And chances are most wouldnt make very riveting prime time viewing. But if youre the one who has the problem, its nice to know that theres a knowledgeable expert available who can help you solve it, and theyre just a phone call away.

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How can you tell when youve outgrown your legal counsel? The following questions may help you decide if you need to make changes on your legal team. There are basically two types of business lawyers, litigation lawyers and transactional lawyers. Litigation lawyers specialize in handling lawsuits and courtroom proceedings, while transactional lawyers handle contracts and other general business matters. Youll want to hire a litigation lawyer if youre involved in a lawsuit or criminal proceeding. Otherwise, a transactional lawyer can probably handle all your business needs.
-What services do you feel you need that you arent getting now from your present legal counsel?
-Has the nature of your legal work changed recently where your current legal team can no longer meet the needs of your business?
-Has the volume of your legal work increased (or decreased) where you need a bigger (or smaller) team?
-Has the legal work become more complicated where it requires specialized knowledge or skills?
-Have you recently automated your systems and your current counsel is still doing things the old fashioned way?
-Does your current attorney seem overwhelmed with the amount of legal work youre generating?
-Has the relationship broken down for personal reasons or a personality conflict?
-Do you feel that youre not getting good value for your money? What areas do you have specific complaints about?
-Do you always have to chase staff down to try and get answers to your questions?
-Is your current attorney always late in getting paperwork and reports to you on time?
-Do the costs youre being charged seem excessive?
-Is your current counsel short-staffed?
-Do you seem to spend a lot of time managing the legal staff and dealing with their problems?
-Is your current legal counsel too busy to take your calls?
Once you determine that a new legal team is the right decision for you, here are a few pointers for hiring the right attorney for your business:
-Look for a law firm that specializes in the expertise youre looking for
-Ask for references from other clients
-Ask about potential conflicts of interest with other clients
-Set appropriate terms for the engagement
-Estimate engagement costs before deciding on hiring a specific firm
-Specify which lawyers you want assigned to your case, and pay only for those lawyers you pre-approve
-Require a full description of conferences between lawyers and the matters discussed
-Require that a designated partner review and sign-off on all invoices
-Designate who will take and review depositions
-How will photocopying be handled?
-Explain your budget for fees and costs beforehand
-Insist on periodic, timely billing
-Establish milestones for engagement and budget review
-Communicate your expectations clearly so there are no misunderstandings
-Establish a maximum fee for the engagement and stick to it
and finally, be a good client! The relationship with your legal team should be a collaborative partnership. To ensure quality results, be sure that you are clearly communicating with your legal team. Dont keep them in the dark about changes in your business strategy or tactics and do immediately communicate when you have questions or concerns about their work. Choosing a legal team is hard work and well worth the effort to nurture the relationship once it is established.

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How can you tell when youve outgrown your legal counsel? The following questions may help you decide if you need to make changes on your legal team. There are basically two types of business lawyers, litigation lawyers and transactional lawyers. Litigation lawyers specialize in handling lawsuits and courtroom proceedings, while transactional lawyers handle contracts and other general business matters. Youll want to hire a litigation lawyer if youre involved in a lawsuit or criminal proceeding. Otherwise, a transactional lawyer can probably handle all your business needs.
-What services do you feel you need that you arent getting now from your present legal counsel?
-Has the nature of your legal work changed recently where your current legal team can no longer meet the needs of your business?
-Has the volume of your legal work increased (or decreased) where you need a bigger (or smaller) team?
-Has the legal work become more complicated where it requires specialized knowledge or skills?
-Have you recently automated your systems and your current counsel is still doing things the old fashioned way?
-Does your current attorney seem overwhelmed with the amount of legal work youre generating?
-Has the relationship broken down for personal reasons or a personality conflict?
-Do you feel that youre not getting good value for your money? What areas do you have specific complaints about?
-Do you always have to chase staff down to try and get answers to your questions?
-Is your current attorney always late in getting paperwork and reports to you on time?
-Do the costs youre being charged seem excessive?
-Is your current counsel short-staffed?
-Do you seem to spend a lot of time managing the legal staff and dealing with their problems?
-Is your current legal counsel too busy to take your calls?
Once you determine that a new legal team is the right decision for you, here are a few pointers for hiring the right attorney for your business:
-Look for a law firm that specializes in the expertise youre looking for
-Ask for references from other clients
-Ask about potential conflicts of interest with other clients
-Set appropriate terms for the engagement
-Estimate engagement costs before deciding on hiring a specific firm
-Specify which lawyers you want assigned to your case, and pay only for those lawyers you pre-approve
-Require a full description of conferences between lawyers and the matters discussed
-Require that a designated partner review and sign-off on all invoices
-Designate who will take and review depositions
-How will photocopying be handled?
-Explain your budget for fees and costs beforehand
-Insist on periodic, timely billing
-Establish milestones for engagement and budget review
-Communicate your expectations clearly so there are no misunderstandings
-Establish a maximum fee for the engagement and stick to it
and finally, be a good client! The relationship with your legal team should be a collaborative partnership. To ensure quality results, be sure that you are clearly communicating with your legal team. Dont keep them in the dark about changes in your business strategy or tactics and do immediately communicate when you have questions or concerns about their work. Choosing a legal team is hard work and well worth the effort to nurture the relationship once it is established.

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Running a company comes with a number of challenges, some which involve the services of legal counsel. When you consider workmens compensation, sexual harassment, contracts, labor laws, marketing and advertising, licensing, termination disputes, and so on, you can easily see that securing a reputable law firm could be to your advantage. However, situations arise all the time within businesses. Because of this, it is vital to know when you should and should not secure the services of a law firm.

Today, you can find a number of do-it-yourself legal solutions online. For example, years ago, tax and payroll issues were often handled by outside or inside counsel. However, with the ability to download forms and follow specific instructions, many times companies choose to handle things on their own. Obviously, this option means a huge savings and quicker turnaround in most cases. However, any do-it-yourself legal action also comes with risk if not done properly.

As you can imagine, knowing when and/or if you should ever hire a lawyer to represent you could be a very, fine line. Consider contracts as an example. If not written and executed properly, you could lose not only a significant amount of money, but also potentially the business you worked so hard to build. For this reason, many companies, small to large, will leave contract negotiations and implementation to that of legal counsel. Because contracts are so sensitive and even the smallest mistake in wording could be deadly, seeking out the advice of an attorney is probably a wise choice.

For relatively simple contracts you can choose to create it yourself or use an already created template. However, if you choose this route, review the contract carefully, eliminating anything that would hold your company or anyone within the company liable. An example of potential liability is indemnity. In addition, the do-it-yourself contract should include and even request mutuality. To give you an idea of what this means, if you were going to create a contract that protected the other party specific to limitation of liability, then you too should have this same protection.

It is also suggested that with any DIY legal contract that you ensure there is some type of clause, allowing you out of the contract if the second party does not live up to their end of the bargain. The key with any contract is to look closely for provisions in which fees would need to be paid by you for early termination or cancellation. The good news about handling contracts on your own is that a number of reputable online resources exist where you can download forms needed and sometimes, at no cost. These forms can then be modified specific to your needs and company.

The other side to this is that sometimes, contracts can be quite lengthy and complex. For example, a simple employee contract for an administrative employee would likely be something you could implement with no problem. However, if you need a contract created for a joint venture, or an employment contract that also protects intellectual property there is a higher potential of error and risk if done without professional input. In this case, hiring a lawyer to prepare the contract, provide guidance, execute, and then back it with legal support is wise.

What you need to do when considering contracts, employment, termination, workmens compensation, or any potential legal issue for your company is to determine the potential risk and financial outcome if the right documentation is not in place. If the risk is minimal and there is a cap on the financial end, then using do-it-yourself legal forms makes sense. However, if the situation is complicated and has great risk attached, then consider the age old wisdom of being a penny wise and a pound foolish. It a wise decision to consider the price of an attorney as an excellent investment if failure to do so would result in a huge financial loss or worse the loss of your business if the risk were realized.

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If you consider all the ways in which companies have to run a business, it is no wonder legal support is so critical. Markets today are highly competitive. The internet has made global competition a reality that years ago we could not have even dreamed possible. With the increased opportunity also comes increased risk. Businesses must have the right information, at the right time to make strategic, operational, and tactical decisions about their business.

Although there are a number of areas within every company that need special attention, two of the most critical are finance and legal. Without surprise, these areas are also the source of potential business risk. Risk is a cost of doing business but for each risk event, a business will need to decide whether they will avoid it, mitigate it or transfer the risk. As it pertains to legal issues some risk issues can be handled within the company, while others will require the support of an attorney. In order to reduce or avoid risk, your attorney must not only be competent in their field but have a firm understanding of your strategic business objectives.

The role of risk in business received even greater attention with the events which led to the creation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The federal regulations around corporate governance coupled with the increase of white-collar crime such as identity theft, computer hacking, and embezzlement have made companies take risk management very seriously. Corporate compliance issues can become overwhelming and complex, which is why a reputable law firm is important. A law firm invested in your success can guide you through processes so you are able to efficiently assess and address risk issues.

As the amount of information we produce increases, data management and security also becomes more important. Your law firm can assist you with becoming better organized around data security issues, and hence implementing risk reduction measures. Data not only needs to be organized but securely stored with appropriate access controls. In response to this risk event, many corporations have began utilizing the services of internet data centers, which house the brain of the company in a secured, temperature controlled, clean, and monitored environment.

Financial risks are always a concern for companies, and can impact all facets of the organization operations, insurance, liabilities, etc. In addition to the traditional concerns of collecting, managing and presenting financial data, companies are also exposed to financial risks in business development. A business cannot grow without undertaking some amount of risk. For this reason risk cannot be managed in a silo by Legal, or Risk Management. An effective risk management plan will align with the overall strategic objectives of the business. Your inside and outside counsel must be partners in this process. While counsel will seek to institute the necessary protections against risk, they must also understand critical business objectives and help the organization to realize them.

Each company will have a risk profile based on their business goals and tolerance for risk. A companys risk aversion or acceptance will vary depending on a number of factors, including industry, size, competitive landscape and level of regulatory oversight. In example a financial institution may be much more risk averse than a printing company. For global organizations, the risks may also vary by location.

Risk management truly requires a partnership approach. Legal, Sales, Operation and The Executive Team must communicate and understand the critical business objectives and work together to make them happen. The legal team should understand not only how to identify risks in practices, operations, processes, technologies, and techniques but also how the risk fits with the overall business plan. Risks are inevitable, but with teamwork and skillful execution, you can successfully navigate the often choppy waters of doing business.

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What do you do if you find yourself, suddenly, in a legal bind? Who do you turn to if you do not have the slightest idea of your rights as a citizen and you do not have your own lawyer? Believe it or not, lots of folks have been caught in this kind of a jam. But lucky for them, more often than not, the solutions are no more than a click away.

A resourceful legal website is certainly beneficial to anyone who needs quick and accurate information about a law suit or anyone who wants to learn more about legal matters. Since people are accustomed to logging on to their computers for all sorts of reasons–to read breaking headlines, check the weather forecast, download recipes, and book airline tickets etc.it is logical to think that they would turn to a computer when searching for answers to a range of legal concerns.

What is more, a website is an obvious way to promote your company and attract new clients. There are numerous elements that could appear on your site. A full-fledged site defines your companys mission, explains its background, introduces its employees, and lists contact information. But you can also include several different elements. Consider the following:

• a dictionary of legal terms
• a variety of legal forms
• a directory of lawyers (organized by specialty or geography)
• FAQs and an Ask the Expert column
• links to articles covering timely lawful issues
• legal case histories

No matter what your company specializes in, a website can be tailored to cover your areas of expertise. It is also possible to make it as interactive as you desire. Perhaps you want to link to lively message boards and current blogs, or offer the opportunity to have live chats with lawyers. Whatever elements you include, the ultimate purpose of a functional, practical site is to provide information in a way that is as accessible and helpful as possible.

Lets face it, the ordinary citizen is pretty clueless when it comes to determining lawful behavior, be it at home, at the office, at work, or at play. While we all have an idea of what is legitimate and permissible, most of us dont grasp the exceptions to the rule or understand the fine print.

Of course, it is impossible to cover every aspect of the law on one website and it is impossible to list all the fields of interest here. But a carefully constructed legal website can, indeed, be a source of comfort and a fount of information for the general public. Here are a few examples of the subjects you might choose to address on your website (either in depth or in a general manner):

• Bankruptcy laws
• Accident insurance
• Copyright law
• Entertainment law
• Investment law
• Criminal law and criminal procedures
• Discrimination laws
• Employment laws
• Family law

It is about time the field of law earned a positive reputation. Your company can blaze the trails by putting up an attractive, effective site that not only showcases your services, but also bestows valuable knowledge on those in need.

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