This is probably the biggest thing I miss about not living in the town I grew up in, where if I urgently needed a lawyer I could call any of two or three people connected with the legal profession locally and get a referral.
As already stated, get referrals. I didn’t know a good contractor prior to remodeling my kitchen, so I looked on Angie’s List, asked friends, and checked references.
I think your question may be more along the lines of “I just got arrested and need a lawyer and don’t exactly have time to shop for one!”. Really what you need is someone to bail you out of jail so you can find one, and then I imagine it is the same process. Know a friend who was arrested and had a great lawyer? Ask them. Hell, I might even check Yelp if I was desperate, but I’d be surprised if among your friends, someone (or someone they know) hasn’t been in a similar bind to the one you are in, and couldn’t recommend someone. Obviously, the more specialized the issue, the more research I would do…
I have a lawyer, but I’m cheating, since my wife’s a non-practicing attorney (she quit when we had our kid) from either the top law school or the second best law school in Texas (depends on who you ask and what you’re asking about). I’d just ask her to go ask the grapevine who the best person is for whatever kind of legal aid we’d need.
Barring that, I’d probably hit up my lawyer friends (I know quite a few on my own) and ask if they know anyone in Dallas who could give me advice on who to hire.
I have a lawyer, in that I hired one to buy and sell my houses (the old one I bought, then sold and the new one I bought).
I need a lawyer right now, as it happens, in a non-criminal, non-property matter (in a very long story sort of way). At this stage, I merely wanted advice on my rights. So I called my lawyer and asked if he handled that sort of matter or if he should refer me. It turns out he did, I went along and asked him questions and he charged me for half an hour of his time at a rate we negotiated on the phone. Easy.
It’s really scary to need a lawyer for anything unexpected, so if you’ve had one in the past for anything just keep their number handy. They should refer you. If you have a small business or something, just pay a retainer.
Most people have sold property or gotten divorced, it needn’t be a criminal matter.
Everyone has a lawyer. If you can’t afford a lawyer one will be provided to you. That is if you’re charged with a crime.
It’s a good idea to keep a lawyer on retainer if you have a business with significant liability or a criminal career. Otherwise you just need to know a lawyer who will answer your phone calls.
I have several lawyers. One is a guy I have on retainer, specializing in Family Law (don’t ask). One is a very good friend who specializes in Worker’s Comp. Then there a dozen or so former students or collegues who entered the legal profession and owe me. Who I call depends on what kind of trouble I’m experiencing.
If you phoned me and told me that, I would not take the case; and would refer you to a colleague. (And I’d suggest that you not phrase your request for representation that way.) If, however, you phoned me and said that you had been accused of murder (and you admit to nothing), I’d likely take the case.
Why? Because our code of ethics does not allow me to represent you as “not guilty” when I know that you are.
Now, if you never tell me that you did it, I can examine the Crown’s evidence, I can see where their holes are, I can look at the constitutional issues (if any), and I can figure out the best way to move forward as if you are not guilty. But if you tell me that you are guilty, then all I can do is enter a guillty plea, and speak to sentence.
Criminal law is not my specialty but I was under the impression that pleading not guilty means “Oh yeah? Prove it!” rather than a positive statement that the person is not guilty. Otherwise, every person who was found guilty of the crime they plead not guilty to would also be condemned for having lied to the court.
If it were otherwise, client could not be fully open with his lawyer unless he was ready to be found guilty.
Hired a lawyer almost 30 years ago to go over the contract when my wife and I bought our current home. Have used him (and others he has refered me to) on a number of occasions; wills, setting up trusts, a tricky insurance claim, POA and issues relating to my father’s death and my mother having Alzheimer’s.
When we lived in Boston, my wife worked for a friend who was just setting up his own practice and couldn’t afford a paralegal.
I don’t have my lawyer on “speed-dial” but do meet with him once every year or so to be sure all of our “affairs are in order.”
No she would not. “Attorney of Record” is a term of art with a particular meaning–ie, that the attorney has formally entered an appearance on your behalf in a particular matter. If I do your divorce, and then later you get arrested for a crime, I am not your attorney of record in the criminal case…unless and until you hire me.
Otherwise–I become “your” lawyer when you pay me, or for a pro bono or contingency fee case, at the point where I agree to represent you. Not before. Confidentiality attaches at the point where you confide privileged information to me, being aware that I am, in fact, a lawyer, whether or not I end up becoming “your” lawyer. However, if you tell me that you intend to cause someone serious bodily harm in the near future, I have the option to disclose that information to the extent necessary to prevent that harm.
It’s optional?
Yes, in my state and under the Model Rules of Professional Conduct.
Also, my post above was incomplete. There are other circumstances in which I can reveal confidential information, as detailed in the linked rule.
It does, but understand the ethics involved. (And I do practice in the criminal area.) I cannot lie to a court. Therefore, I cannot represent a client as not guilty to a court when I know damn well that he or she is.
Thus, I do not want to know. If I do not know, I can be in doubt; and I am always in doubt as long as the client says nothing to me as to guilt. I can make the Crown “prove it,” in other words, and I can still poke holes in its case.
Yup! At least in most jurisdictions, it is. Remember that confidentiality is there so that people feel comfortable telling their lawyer anything. That means that there being anything that they must report risks undermining the system.
MichaelEMouse, in case you had not noticed, Spoons practices in Canada, which has somewhat different ethics rules from the US. Your understanding is correct for most US states, although some lawyers will not represent a client who has told them that he is guilty. Even in the US, you cannot put a client on the stand if you know he is going to lie. If he insists, you have to make him testify in narrative form instead of asking leading questions (and thereby suborning his perjury).
No, I wouldn’t be surprised. The discussion has been about when individual, natural persons need lawyers, not so much when business entities and corporations need them. Most flesh and blood people don’t need attorneys on full time, year round retainer.
But there’s a big difference between pleading “Not Guilty” and lying to the court. Yes, as an officer of the court you are obligated to not lie, or allow your client to lie. So if your client tells you he stabbed his wife, you are obligated to not make statements in court that your client didn’t stab his wife. You can still make the prosecution prove that he stabbed his wife, you don’t have to admit in court that he stabbed his wife just because he told you he stabbed his wife. You can’t put him on the stand if you believe he’s going to lie, but you don’t have to put him on the stand to confess either.
I was disagreeing specifically with the statement that few people have the “resources” to have a lawyer on retainer. I suspect most people could come up with a couple hundred a year if they felt they has a good reason to “have a lawyer” in the on-retainer sense.
I agree that few people have the “need” to have a lawyer on retainer. I didn’t intend to argue that.
Or if you’re in a union. My parents use a lawyer from the UAW for their wills and stuff.
Every local bar should have a lawyer referral program. Here’s Cleveland’s. Works nice if you have an upcoming need but if you need help after 4PM and/or on a weekend, you’ll just have to get your friends to look in the Yellow Pages for you while you hang out in jail.
My state doesn’t, other than a volunteer lawyer project for low income clients in a limited range of cases, and the Legal Services program, which is similar.