If you are looking for a litigation lawyer like Jonathan Bunge, you are either considering bringing a law suit against someone who has wronged you in some way, or you are responding to a suit that someone else has brought against you. Either way, the process on which you are about to embark can be stressful and costly. For this reason, it is vital that you find the right lawyer to handle your case. Here are somethings that you should be sure to ask a potential litigation lawyer.
What do you think about my chances of success?
Typically, lawyers will offer you a free consultation, and this is your opportunity to lay the details of the case that you are bringing or defending against. Be sure that you are entirely truthful in your description and avoid exaggerating or minimizing relevant facts. This will allow your potential lawyer to give you his or her perspective on your case, and on your likelihood of success should the matter end up before the courts or some other arbitrator. Be sure to get the lawyer’s sense of the both the strengths and weaknesses of your case, and ask for a preliminary sense of how the lawyer might approach the case.
What do you think this will cost?
It won’t be possible for a lawyer to give a firm indication of the cost of your case without having spent some time on it, nor without having a clear sense of the strength of the opposing case. However, a lawyer should be able to you how much similar cases have cost, and he or she can certainly tell you what their hourly rates are, and how much time they might need to spend on different aspects of the case. Be sure to ask what is included in the hourly rate – sometimes we can be quite surprised to find a whole list of costs that are billed above and beyond that rate. Knowing the answers to these questions will help you decide if this is right lawyer for you, and if so, will help you to develop a cost-effective strategy for working with your lawyer. All of these details should be laid out in an engagement letter which is basically a contract between you and your lawyer.
What relevant experience do you have?
There are many different kinds of matters that are litigated before the courts, and each of these will draw on different skills and may require different approaches. Be sure that any lawyer you are considering hiring has experience dealing with cases that are similar to yours, and that they have a demonstrated record of success.
These are just some of the questions that you should be sure to ask any litigation lawyer that you are considering hiring. Be sure to take your time, and to make sure that you feel entirely comfortable with the answers that a potential lawyer gives to these questions and any others that you may have.