Recommend an Attorney, Things to look for in an Attorney

[ejhamilton]

Hello!

I am hoping some people can recommend a few good attornies in the Cincinnati, OH area. If so, please pm me or post.

Also, when we visit these attornies, what are some things we should be looking for that would help us determine if they are a good pick or not. Obviously I know to look at the price, but what other things?

Thanks for all your info!

[LALADY]

Contact your State Bar to make sure there are no complaints.

What is his/her caseload?

How promptly do they respond to emails/phone calls.

Do they look over 3 years worth of all of your paperwork? When they do, can they pick on issues, like major tax refunds you receive every year?

Do they anticipate problems and inform you of them prior to choosing a chapter? Do they foresee problems before you get to a 341?

Are they experienced in your out of the ordinary financial situation?

How long have they been practicing?

What is their specialty -- which chapter?

Have they had cases in your particular district? If so, how many?

Do they know what recap is?

How promptly do they correct errors in their filings?

Do they charge to correct their errors or only your errors?

Have they run your numbers through both 7 and 13 before advising or is it just their gut opinion based on initial glance?

Do they help to obtain home valuation / comps or are you on your own?

Do they run interference for your creditors?

How promptly do they respond to creditors who are harrassing you after filing?

I know there's a whole lot more, but those are some I can initially come up with.

[blessed]

Those are all good things to think about. But honestly, I just knew.

I met with two. The first lady had the personality of a brick, maybe a brick with a bit of cement still stuck to it to make it look miserable. She literally looked at our tax refund amount, knew it was coming within two weeks, and wrote that her "fee" was $100 less than the refund on the contract. Are you kidding me? I'm filing for bk but I promise I'm smarter than you, douche.

The second is awesome, and his paralegal, man she's great. You can tell when people are intelligent and know what they're doing. It also helps that my attorney helped WRITE some of the bk code. I think he knows what he's doing. lol

[HHM]

Contact your State Bar to make sure there are no complaints.

What is his/her caseload?
A good question, but do you have any context for understanding the answer. what if the attorney says 10 per month, and the other says 20. Who is "really" better?

How promptly do they respond to emails/phone calls.
good question, but what you are looking for is a system in place to deal with communication and that the attorney can set expectations for you. If one attorney says they get back in 24 hours and the other 48 hours, neither is better or worse. Just so long as a proper expectation is set.

Do they look over 3 years worth of all of your paperwork? When they do, can they pick on issues, like major tax refunds you receive every year?
probably overkill, in most cases, not necessary, so not sure what you learn from this question.

Do they anticipate problems and inform you of them prior to choosing a chapter? Do they foresee problems before you get to a 341?
good question, a better is simply to ask them how their case preparation system works, do you meet with the attorney to review your petition

Are they experienced in your out of the ordinary financial situation?
good question, but a bit vague, usually you can assess this if the attorney takes some time to explain your issue back to you

How long have they been practicing?
Actually, too vague a question and the answer is NOT useful. The length of time practicing in BK has NOTHING to do with experience, an attorney with 3 years experience handling nothing but complex cases is far more experienced than a 20 year veteran of a BK mill.

What is their specialty -- which chapter?
Most rules of ethics prevent lawyers from saying they "specialize" but you may ask for a break down by percentage of case time, i.e. 60% chapter 7, 40% chapter 13, etc.

Have they had cases in your particular district? If so, how many?
Not sure why this question is needed unless you are dealing with an "online" BK firm, and why would you be talking to a firm like that in the first place

Do they know what recap is?
Not sure why this matters

How promptly do they correct errors in their filings?
Not a bad question, but does the answer really matter, so long as they say, before the deadline, that is actually sufficient

Do they charge to correct their errors or only your errors?
Good question. You will want to review what other limitations there might be in the fee agreement, what services are not covered, Adversary proceedings, creditor objections, etc

Have they run your numbers through both 7 and 13 before advising or is it just their gut opinion based on initial glance?
This is a bit too much to expect at an initial, free, consultation. Most good attorneys with basic information can determine a chap 7 or chap. 13. However, you will want to know if they have a complete case analysis process and go over it with you before filing BK.

Do they help to obtain home valuation / comps or are you on your own?
BK attorneys are not real estate agents, but most attorneys will probably recommend someone.

Do they run interference for your creditors?
Good question, but realize, the burden is still on the debtor to notify the creditors of representation

How promptly do they respond to creditors who are harrassing you after filing?
This is a very minor issue, but ask away if you want.

I know there's a whole lot more, but those are some I can initially come up with.

This is the blog post I refer people too regarding how to shop for attorneys

http://askmethner.com/?p=609

The consultation is really more of a discussion than a question and answer session, most of your questions will be answered during the conversation. There are tons of lists of questions to ask your attorney, but the real problem with those lists is they don't really educate you on "why" you are asking those questions, nor do they give you context to understand if the answer is even helpful.

Like I said above, the "how long have you been practicing" question is actually quite USELESS. It doesn't give you any useful information.