With the sheer number of London employment lawyers in business right now, it can be difficult to know where to even start looking for the right one for your own case. There are literally thousands of them with thousands of different specialisms and all the promises in the world when it comes to what they can do for you. Of course, common sense will tell you that not all are cut from the same cloth and this is indeed the case – some will be more than apt for the job at hand and others are 100% guaranteed to let you down. Needless to say therefore, the importance of making the right decision the first time at bat cannot be overstated, which contrary to popular belief doesn’t have to be nearly as complicated as it seems.
So, with this in mind, here’s a quick overview of the steps you should be taking when it comes to choosing the very best employment lawyer in London:
1 – Website Checks
Just by looking over both the quality and the content of their website, you should be able to get a good feel for the kind of lawyer you’re looking at. You should be looking for signs of in-depth knowledge with regard to the area of law with which you’ll be needed assistance, along with bog-standard professionalism and attention to detail.
2 – Preliminary Meetings
Never overlook the importance to have a preliminary, no-obligation meeting with the lawyers on your shortlist before making your final decision. This is standard practice and not the kind of thing that should be disputed by any professional lawyer – those that deny you a preliminary meeting are the kinds you really don’t want to be dealing with anyway.
3 – A Good Connection
The lawyer you choose will play the biggest and most important role of all in your case, therefore making it crucial that the two of you are able to get along. You’ll be working closely with one another over an extended period of time while dealing with important personal issues, which in turn means that if the two of you are quite simply chalk and cheese, you might be better off looking elsewhere for a better connection.
4 – Play the Field
Cast your net as far and wide as possible, for the simple reason that the ideally suited employment lawyer is guaranteed to be out there somewhere in the mix. The more lawyers you consider and compare along the way, the higher the likelihood that you’ll strike gold with the best-suited professional for the job without having to overpay.
5 – Seek Recommendations
Chances are that if you ask enough people within your social and business circles alike, somebody is bound to know somebody that had to see an employment lawyer in London for one thing or another. If so, you can ask them to refer you on to the lawyer they chose…assuming they were successful of course…and make the selection process much easier for yourself. Alternatively, seek recommendation from the web.
6 – Success Record
Even more important than qualifications, low prices and shiny websites is the lawyer’s history – or more specifically, their success record. Every lawyer across the land always has been and always will be measured in accordance with their success rates. Some rarely lose, some hover more around 50/50 and others have never in their life successfully won a case. Suffice to say therefore, this is the kind of thing you could do with finding out before you hire them.
7 – Fee Structure
How much you pay for the services rendered will be determined by a bunch of wholly unique factors, but in terms of fee structures this is something you’ll need to establish and clarify ahead of time. For example, they plan to charge you at a set hourly rate, but does this include things like transport costs? They may have quoted you one price for the whole deal, but what if you need to contact them out of hours – any added charges? The long and short of it is that you need to get every last charge and potential charge laid out on paper before going ahead – you don’t want to risk getting stung later on.
8 – Locality
Last but not least, it’s not always possible in all instances but if you have the luxury of being able to choose a lawyer that’s located somewhere nearby, you’ll be glad you did so. The reason being that while web and phone-based meetings are all well and good, you’ll have to meet in person from time to time and the more you do, the better.
About Author: Content curated by Mauneel Desai, an expert finance & investment guider having a key interest in writing. You can follow him online to read his latest write up.
