Personal
Referral
One of the best ways to find an Baton Rouge, Lousiana personal injury lawyer
or medical malpractice attorney is by asking your friends, relatives
or co-workers for suggestions. This is especially useful if they have
used an attorney for the same purpose you are seeking one. Most people
seeking a lawyer begin by asking advice from a personal acquaintance
or someone whose opinion they value, such as their banker, minister,
relative, or another lawyer. Other common referral sources are employers,
law school teachers and administrators, labor unions, consumer groups,
public interest organizations, and women's associations. Ask friends,
teachers, employer, co-workers, minister, relatives, neighbors, or anyone
you trust which lawyers they have used and if they were happy with the
way their cases were handled.
Professional
Referral
Depending on the complexity of your case, you may want to find an attorney
who practices primarily in one field. For instance, if you are concerned
that a nursing home may be mistreating a loved one, you might be best
served by an attorney who has worked in that area. You can check with
members of professional organizations or others familiar with the subject
for suggestions. Your prospective attorney will talk to you for free
to determine the nature of your legal services requirements, and refer
you to a specially qualified attorney or legal services agency if he
is unable to provide the services himself. Ask other lawyers, or call
your local Legal Aid or Public Defender's office to see if you qualify
for representation.
Martindale-Hubbell
Law Directory
You also can find some answers in the public library in the Martindale-Hubbell
Law Directory, which for more than 100 years has published as complete
a roster as possible of the members of the bar in the United States
and Canada. The directory gives brief biological sketches of many lawyers
and describes the legal areas in which law firms practice.
Advertising
From 1908 to 1977, lawyers were forbidden to advertise their services.
This prohibition came about through fear of "puffery" and
the belief that even the best executed advertising could be unintentionally
false, misleading or deceptive because of the complex nature of legal
services. A 1977 ruling of the United States Supreme Court (Bates v.
State Bar of Arizona) changed the rules to a degree. Lawyers are now
permitted to advertise certain information in newspapers, Yellow Pages,
and on radio and television. You can follow certain steps when you contact
a lawyer whose advertisement you read or heard.
Don't take
the ad literally; ask the lawyer for references and check his or her
experience with your type of case.
Ask the lawyer
about the services advertised and what they include.
Don't hesitate
to discuss fees, what services they cover, and whether there will
be any extra charges.
Finally,
keep a copy of the ad so that you can check to see whether the lawyer
is performing as advertised.
