Proving My Innocence

Hiring an attorney can be an exciting and stressful thing. The attorney can be helping you to resolve a problem such as a divorce, a personal injury dispute, a criminal charge. They can also help to prevent problems, like writing an estate plan, making business contracts, or putting a patent on a product. The important thing is that you understand what you should do when it comes to meeting with an attorney so that you know what to expect. Here are some common misconceptions about attorneys.

1. Any Attorney Can Practice All Areas Of Law

Although an attorney make have a license to practice law, each attorney generally specializes in different fields. If the person practices divorce law, it is highly unlikely that they will take a case over a tax dispute. In addition, someone like a patent lawyer needs additional licensing and certification to practice patent law. For this reason, you may meet with an attorney and they tell you that they cannot take your case because it does not fit their area of expertise. In this situation, they would refer you out to someone else.

2. An Attorney Will Only Take Payment If You Win

There are actually very few attorneys that will take your case based on contingency, meaning that they will only take payment if they win your case. Personal injury lawsuits tend to be the most common for contingency, otherwise when you hire an attorney you should plan on paying them. In some cases you, will have to pay them upfront with a retainer. This is an amount of money that you will put in a special account and the lawyer will draw on the money as payment for their work. In some cases, a lawyer won't even take your case unless you provide a retainer.

3. An Attorney Can Tell You If You Will Win Or Lose

When you meet with the attorney for your initial consultation they will tell you if they think you have a good case or not. In some instances, they will inform you that you have a good chance of winning or losing, but still that is not a guarantee. Just because the attorney feels you have a good case, there is a chance that you will walk away losing, and it is not the attorney's fault. There are factors beyond their control, so you have to realize that it is a risk, and this is a risk you assume.

By understanding these things you can have a more realistic idea of what working with an attorney, like those at Boehmer Law, is like.