Step 1: STOP LOOKING ONLINE.No, seriously, stop. Let me guess, were you at Lawyers.com? Or even worse, the California Bar website? And I'm hoping against hope that you didn't use Google Maps. But it's a Google world, what are you supposed to do? If you can find good dentists at 1-800-Dentist.com and a good doctor at WebMD.com - shouldn't there be good lawyers at Lawyers.com? Well, you're half right - because there should be, but most of them are not. What's worse, no one has really stepped up to regulate the legal advertising that's being done online. So what you're really choosing when you choose a lawyer online is the lawyer who hired the best marketing people. Good luck with that.
There are a number of problems with the existing online services:
1. They don't help you find the right kind of lawyer. The California Bar website refuses to even list its lawyers by specialty, and Lawyers.com pulls its listings from the Martindale database - which allows lawyers to list everything they've ever done. After reviewing the profiles of those lawyers which came up when I went looking for "Contracts" lawyers in Burbank, CA, I found that the fewest number of specialties listed was 19, and some with well over 50. And did they have to do anything to get something listed as an area of expertise? Nope. Just had to write it down. Aren't you glad that doctors can't do that?
2. They offer no indication of value or quality. You would think that this brave new world of information would offer some peer evaluation or customer evaluations, like a Yelp for legal professionals. But you'll get none of that. The order in which search results are presented to you are driven either by alphabetical order, or worse still, the moneys paid to the site for "premium placement" in said results. So, ostensibly, you've got to go through all of them one at a time, visit their website and then decide who you're actually going to take the time to call? I ran a search for "Small Claims" lawyers in Los Angeles, and got 408 results. So, at five minutes apiece to do just a cursory review, you ought to be done (provided you don't take any breaks for eating or sleeping) in about a day and a half. Hey, at least they offer 1-click directions to the offices!
3. They don't have the real information you need. The traditional imprimaturs of legal skill and law school and experience - neither of which are available online. So even if a lawyer got their degree from Bob's College of Law and have been practicing law since earlier this month, they'll be listed alongside the folks who graduated top of their class from Harvard Law School and have twenty years experience arguing in front of the Supreme Court. That's equity for you. But it this one of those times you don't want things to be so fair? I'm certainly not advocating that you use those two metrics to make final decisions on who you'll hire to handle your most sensitive and important affairs - but it sure does make for a nice place to start from. And where can you find this information online? You can't.
Well then, what's a potential client to do? Well, I imagine you wouldn't be too pleased to have read this far just for me to tell you that you're screwed. Because, in fact, I do have an answer for you. Your best tool in finding the perfect lawyer for you is a lawyer.
Oh no, a chicken and egg conundrum! What are you to do? Not so fast. You don't need to start with a great lawyer, or even a lawyer that practices in remotely the same area where you need help. And I imagine there's not a single one of you that doesn't already personally know a lawyer. There are far too many of us around - and we're far too loud to not be noticed. The only real requirement for the lawyer you start with is that you trust him or her. Now have you got someone in mind?
Because lawyers spend a lot of time with other lawyers (whether they want to or not), and know far more about how to spot a bad one than you do. What's more, we network like it's an intramural sport. For those of us who have practiced or are currently practicing at a mid-size to large firm, we already know hundreds of lawyers, who also know hundreds of lawyers. And that's before we even really think about it. We have friends from law school, friends from conferences, even people we've seen in court or worked with on transactions. The truth is, like it or not, a lawyer's life is full of other lawyers. And that's a resource you can use.
But remember, it's 2009 and we're busy, too. So the best thing you can do is condense the facts of your legal problem into about a paragraph and send it to the lawyer you already know in an e-mail. He/she can forward it to the trusted lawyers in his/her network, who will also do the same, and the responses will come flooding back into your "lawyer friend". He/She will then, most likely, (depending on how good of friends you are) vet the responses and send a final list to you. For my part, I usually check the lawyer list I get back to find out a little bit about their practice, where they went to school, how long they've been in the game, etc. I also check the lawyers who referred them (if they're not direct contacts of mine), to see if it's someone who I think is worth contacting. I'll also check out their firm, and be sure that the potential client is going to be able to afford the lawyer in question. Ultimately, they'll be getting a list of people that I, personally would call if I had the problem in question.
How's that compared to the list you got on the internet? And the best part of it is... it didn't cost you a dime.
Feel free to use me as your friend in the business! ...and good luck!
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