1. What should you pay attention to when hiring a lawyer?
1. Pay attention to whether the law firm is qualified. It should be noted that legal service offices, legal service centers and other institutions are different from law firms. Lawyers should be hired by regular law firms holding a law firm practice license.
2. Pay attention to whether the lawyer hired has a practicing license. Lawyers appointed by law firms or named by themselves must not only see business cards, but also listen to introductions, and check whether they have a lawyer's practicing certificate, and they are not allowed to engage in legal business in the name of lawyers. At the same time, he should also check whether his certificate is registered every year. The lawyer's practicing certificate is valid for the year after registration, and will become invalid if it is not registered.
3. Pay attention to the relationship between the proposed lawyer and the law firm, whether it is a partner of the firm or an employment relationship. You can know whether you are a lawyer of the firm by looking at the partnership articles or employment contract. Lawyers are not allowed to practice in more than two law firms or other legal service organizations at the same time.
4. Pay attention to whether the power of attorney has a seal. When a lawyer handles business, he or she is entrusted by the law firm and signs a written entrustment contract with the client. Individual lawyers may not accept commissions privately. Therefore, you should not sign a power of attorney with a personal attorney.
5. Pay attention to whether the authorization authority is clearly stated in the power of attorney. If the party concerned writes a "power of attorney" or "carte blanche" within the authority of the agency without specific authorization, it is a general authorization. The litigation agent has no right to admit, abandon or change the litigation claim, conduct settlement, file a counterclaim or appeal on his behalf.
6. The fees in the power of attorney must be clearly stated. There are three charging methods for law firms: piece-rate charging, subject-matter proportional charging, and negotiated charging. The employment contract should clearly state how to pay for appraisal fees, travel expenses and other expenses after collecting business fees.
7. Be careful not to let the lawyer you hire charge fees. Lawyer fees are collected uniformly from the client by the law firm and a fee receipt is issued. Lawyers may not charge fees to their clients without permission, nor may they charge any additional fees or property from their clients.
8. It should be noted that if a hired lawyer accepts the other party's entrustment to handle other legal affairs, he must obtain his consent. Without the consent of the client, a lawyer shall not accept the entrustment of the other party to handle other legal matters, except when the entrusted matter has been concluded.
9. It should be known that after a lawyer accepts a commission, he may not refuse to defend or represent him without justifiable reasons. After accepting the client's entrustment, a lawyer shall not arbitrarily break the contract or refuse to perform the duties stipulated in the agreement, nor shall he transfer the entrustment to another person without authorization after accepting the entrustment. Of course, if the entrusted matter is illegal, the client uses the services provided by the lawyer to engage in illegal activities, or the client conceals the facts, the lawyer has the right to refuse to defend or represent the client.
10. Pay attention to the circumstances under which you can file a claim with a law firm. If a lawyer practices illegally or causes losses to a client due to his fault, his law firm shall be liable for compensation. In addition to refunding the attorney fees collected, the law firm shall also compensate the client for the direct economic losses suffered thereby. Illegal behavior mainly refers to a lawyer's behavior that violates lawyers' professional ethics and practice disciplines. Misconduct mainly includes: causing losses to the parties due to exceeding authorized authority; losing important evidence, resulting in the inability to provide evidence or invalid evidence; leaking state secrets, business secrets and personal privacy of the parties; issuing wrong legal opinions; not being timely due to lawyer reasons Collecting the evidence that should be collected leads to the loss of the evidence; the party loses the statute of limitations due to the lawyer's fault; the lawyer neglects his duty and handles the case hastily.
2. What are the steps to hire a lawyer?
Pay special attention to which lawyers are good at handling what kind of legal matters, and try to hire lawyers who are good at or familiar with the legal services involved in the dispute. Although there is currently no clear division of labor among lawyers in our city, each lawyer has his own professional positioning or good legal service areas.
When hiring a lawyer, you must pay attention to the relevant legal provisions of the statute of limitations and be sure to hire a lawyer within the statute of limitations, because once the statute of limitations expires, your legitimate rights and interests will not be protected. In addition, you need to give the lawyer enough time to conduct investigation and evidence collection and case preparation.
If you hire a lawyer just before the trial, the lawyer may not have a comprehensive understanding of the case and may not have time to collect evidence, which may lead to a passive situation in court or even unfavorable litigation results.
You must have a correct judgment and estimate of the legal risk commitments made by the lawyer on the matters entrusted to you, and you cannot require the lawyer to make a commitment to the outcome of the case. Since there are many factors that affect the judgment of a case, there are many variables during the litigation process. As a lawyer, you can only try your best to protect your legal rights and interests during the representation and defense process. In addition, you should not make additional or prohibited requirements for the lawyer, such as requirements that do not belong to the lawyer's legal affairs, or requiring the lawyer to appoint an acquaintance, etc.
When hiring a lawyer, you should also focus on examining whether there is a conflict of interest between the law firm and the lawyer you are entrusting, that is, whether the law firm or lawyer you intend to entrust has been entrusted by the other party before. Once you accept your own entrustment, you can no longer accept the other party's entrustment. If a lawyer or a lawyer from a law firm unknowingly accepts your client's entrustment, you have the right to ask the lawyer and the law firm to terminate the entrustment relationship and take over the case to safeguard your rights to the maximum extent possible.
Give full trust to the lawyer you hired, state the true situation of the case without reservation, let the lawyer make a correct judgment on the nature of your case, clarify the complex legal relationship, and clarify the agency or The precise line of defense. At the same time, you must also believe that the information and case details provided by the lawyer will be strictly confidential and will not be disclosed to the public. Even after the agency work is completed, the lawyer will have a confidentiality obligation, and other lawyers and auxiliary personnel of the law firm will also have a confidentiality obligation to keep confidential information they have learned about the entrusted matter.
To choose a good lawyer, you must sign an agency agreement with the law firm such as the scope of agency, agency content, agency authority, agency fees, and agency period, and pay the lawyer's fees. Never establish an agency relationship with a non-lawyer agency or a “black lawyer” claiming to be a lawyer to avoid being deceived.
What are the benefits of hiring a lawyer?
Role in civil litigation: Lawyers can write complaints for the parties, provide evidence and arguments, provide legal and regulatory assistance to the parties, strive for greater legitimate interests for the parties in accordance with laws and regulations, and bring the parties to the losses to a minimum.
In criminal proceedings, after accepting the defendant's entrustment, the lawyer gets in touch with the investigation agency, learns from the investigation agency the crime the suspect is accused of, and makes specific requests to meet the criminal suspect in a timely manner; when the lawyer encounters Criminal suspects can be asked about the case; lawyers provide legal advice when meeting with criminal suspects; apply for bail pending trial for criminal suspects, and lawyers can learn about the crimes the criminal suspects are accused of from the investigative agencies and meet with the criminal suspects. , if it is believed that a detained criminal suspect meets the conditions for release on bail pending trial, it can apply for release on bail pending trial for the criminal suspect; act as an agent to make complaints and accusations. Based on the crime the criminal suspect is accused of and the suspect's case information, a lawyer may accept the criminal suspect's entrustment and file a complaint with the relevant agency on his or her behalf, requesting correction.
The above is the relevant content about "What you need to pay attention to when hiring a lawyer". From the above we can know that when hiring a lawyer, you should also focus on checking whether there is a conflict of interest between the law firm and the lawyer you are entrusting, that is, whether the law firm or lawyer you intend to entrust has been entrusted by the other party before. If you still have questions about the above content, you can consult a lawyer online.