Before you hire a lawyer, you have to know that they’ll be worth your time. But besides checking their reviews and testimonials, how can you tell?
The brief guide below sets out three questions you can ask a Winchester lawyer before you hire them. Between asking the right questions, and doing a little background research, you can easily find one that will meet your needs—and more. If you have any more questions, contact our family law solicitors in Winchester city centre.
What do you specialise in?
Lawyers can specialise in different fields of law, and at different depths within a particular field. All of our lawyers specialise in family law, and within that field, can further have expertise in child arrangement orders, spousal maintenance, divorce settlements and so on. As such, consider asking the lawyer what their particular specialty is.
Better still, you could even ask them how they’ve shown that expertise in recent years. You could ask for examples of recent cases, of training and continued development, and of expertise regarding recent changes in the law.
The point of all of these questions is so that you know you have the best possible ally fighting your corner for you. Needless to say, it’s best to hire a specialist rather than a ‘jack of all trades, master of none.’
What are your costs and how are they billed?
There are different ways that lawyers bill their clients. While you may be familiar with the idea of ‘no win no fee’, not every lawyer works on that basis, and it’s far less common outside of personal injury law. You should ask your lawyer to clarify how they charge so that you can have a full grasp of the facts before moving forward.
Put briefly, there are two kinds of cost that you will have to pay: an hourly fee for your lawyer’s time, and set costs for set tasks like filing particular forms. As in all things, you can consider shopping around for the best price, but this must be balanced with the likelihood of your case failing if you hire a bad lawyer.
How strong is my case?
This may seem like an odd question to ask; after all, you might assume that your potential lawyer will simply tell you what you want to hear so that you hire them. However, this isn’t the case.
For one thing, lawyers are eager to avoid taking on cases that highly likely to fail. That’s because they don’t want to waste their time, or the time of their clients.
Contact Stowe Family Law Winchester
We’re Stowe Family Law, the only national law firm dedicated to family matters with the UK’s largest team of specialist family lawyers and an office in the heart of the city of Winchester.
At Stowe, we work hard to make family law easier to understand and know that each case is unique - each one needing tailored support and handled with care.
In choosing Stowe family law Winchester, clients are guided through the process with empathy and care and the reassurance that they have the right team of people by their side.
With offices across the UK, we practice all areas of family law and support people in the Winchester area going through a family breakdown to move forward in life from a position of renewed strength.
So, if you need the best family law solicitors Winchester has to offer, contact Stowe Family Law today, request a free call back or call us at 01962 452 153 - our lines are open 8:30am – 7pm, Monday to Friday and 9am – 5pm on Saturday and Sunday.. Our office can be found at Stowe Family Law LLP, Southgate Chambers, 37-39 Southgate St, Winchester, SO23 9EH.