Many individuals seek a free consultation when need legal help they need to solve. This typically refers to an initial consultation or meeting where no fee is charged.
Several attorneys will provide a free consultation to learn more about your case and you. Other attorneys may charge a fee that will be credited back should you hire the attorney.
Seeking a free consultation may not always be the best approach. You must understand the purpose and content of the consultation. Attorneys that charge a retainer and then by the hour thereafter typically use this free consultation, to sum up, whether they think they can win the case and how much they will be able to charge for the case. It is not to determine the best course of action in your case or to give you any free legal advice. The free consultation is more like a free quote for legal services.
So if you are looking to get a consultation that is substantive and will provide you with actionable legal advice you are likely to be disappointed. The one thing they will not tell you how many hours the case may take. Therefore they will not able to accurately tell you how much the case will cost you. In some cases, it may be like writing the attorney a blank check.
Contingency attorneys approach free consultations in much the same way that hourly fee attorneys do. The free consultation is used to determine whether or not they free that they can win your case because they get paid by getting a percentage of any judgment. The free consultation is used to determine how much time and effort the attorney is likely to put in to get a judgement or settlement
Therefore the contingency attorney has an interest in winning the case. If the attorney doesn’t win or settle your case then they do not get paid. It is typical for a client that has a contingency attorney to assign their interest in the case to the attorney.
The article is for information purposes only and is legal advice. Please contact an attorney for legal advice