Choosing a Lawyer: Items You Need to Discuss

Harrisburg attorney Michael Hynum offers suggestions on what to ask your potential attorney before choosing legal representation as well as tips about communication between you and your attorney. For your convenience, the transcription for the video is included below.

Choosing A Lawyer: Items You Need to Discuss

“Hi, name’s Mike Hynum and I’m the managing partner at Hynum Law in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Today I’d like to talk to you a little bit about choosing a lawyer and what you have to talk about when you meet with a lawyer. Sometimes people like to make fun of attorneys and say that they’re not honest, or that they’re not the most fun people to deal with, but the truth is when you’ve got a problem or there’s something that you need to deal with of a legal nature, an attorney really can be your best friend.

Meet an Attorney

The first thing you need to do is meet with the attorney. Talk to the attorney and determine whether the attorney is a good fit for you. I often tell clients, or potential clients, that I meet with that it’s important to have a good feel for the attorney - because if you don’t feel that it’s a good fit, it’s not going to work long term.

So make sure that you meet with the attorney; get a feel for whether you feel good about working with the attorney. Also ask questions; it’s okay to ask questions of the attorney such as: their educational background, whether they’ve handled the type of issue before that you need to deal with, and anything else that you feel may be pertinent to the representation.

Honesty is the Best Policy

Be honest. There are two people that you don’t lie to: one is your doctor, and the other is your attorney. When you’re working with a lawyer, you really need to tell them everything that’s going on because if you don’t, they’re not going to be able to give you the best advice. If you’re hiding information, or not telling the attorney the whole story, or even worse – telling the attorney something that isn’t completely true, the advice that they’re giving you is not going to be pure. It’s not going to be the best advice possible.

Stay Organized

When you meet with a lawyer, make sure that you’re well organized. Effective communication is very important. Be well organized, be prepared to go and meet with the lawyer, and be honest. Make sure that you’re communicating things effectively, clearly, and honestly.

If there are things that you don’t understand, or there are things your attorney tells you that you don’t understand, make sure that you ask for clarification. I oftentimes have people tell me that they understand what I’m saying, and in my heart I really don’t necessarily believe that they do understand it. At times I even later find out that they really didn’t understand it.

The only way that the attorney is going to know that is if you’re honest with them and say ‘hey, I’m really not sure what it is you’re telling me’ or ‘I really don’t understand that concept’ and make sure that you go back and have them explain it over to you again in a way that you can make sure that you understand exactly what it is they’re telling you.

After all, you’re paying money for representation – sometimes significant amounts of money for representation – and you deserve to understand what it is the attorney is telling you, and what it is the attorney is planning to do for you to resolve your problem.

Remain Focused

Finally, understand that some things that are important to you may not be important legally. Don’t get frustrated if an attorney doesn’t seem to focus as much time on something as you think they should. And if you’re concerned about it, ask: ‘hey, is this really important from a legal perspective?’.

Because a lot of times when I meet with people and talk to people, they’re very emotional. They’re angry, or they’re upset. And they want to talk about things that are the root of their problem, or the things that have really, really upset them – and oftentimes, those things are very important to the client but from a legal standpoint they’re really not that important.

Make sure that you talk to your attorney and work with him or her to understand what is important to you versus what is important from a legal perspective. Because that will help you make the most effective use of the time that you spend with the attorney, and get the most bang for your buck with your legal representation.

So I hope this has helped you a little bit to think about some of the things that you need to put in place or think about ahead of time when you're going to seek out an attorney or meet with an attorney. If you have any questions about this topic, or anything else, please don't hesitate to give me a call at (717) 801-1105 or contact me. Again, my name is Mike Hynum, managing partner at Hynum Law in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Thank you for watching."