If you are planning on seeing a lawyer, you should always prepare ahead of time. Being prepared will help you have a more productive meeting. It may also save you money. The lawyer may have to take more time gathering information and understanding the legal issue if you aren't prepared.
Contact Information
The lawyer will need to be able to contact you to send information or ask questions. You should prepare a paper that contains all relevant contact information, including:
- Home phone number
- Cell phone number
- Work phone number
- Home address
- E-mail address
- Fax number
- Emergency contact information
Summary of the Legal Issue
The lawyer will need to know a detailed chronological summary of the legal issue. This summary should be prepared ahead of time so that you don't forget any important facts during the meeting. Some facts you should consider adding to the summary include:
- The date you were hired and started
- The names of other people that are involved in the legal issue, including any supervisor or manager
- Any facts that set up the background for the dispute, including promotions or evaluations
- The date the legal issue started
- The type and nature of the legal issue
- The specific details of the dispute
- Any remedies by the employer to fix the legal issue
- The current state of the legal issue
All the dates must be accurate so that the lawyer can properly create a legal strategy. A calendar that contains all the important dates can be brought and used at the meeting so that you don't forget when an important event occurred.
Documentation
All relevant documents should be brought to the meeting. If you aren't sure a document is relevant, you should bring it just in case. The documents should be organized and labeled so that you can quickly and efficiently show and explain them to the lawyer. These documents will help the lawyer in understanding the legal issue. Some examples of documents that may be relevant include:
- Statements from other employees
- Evaluation forms
- Company handbooks
- Agreements to not compete
- Documents as to benefit plans
- Documents when hired, including the employment agreement
- Any type of severance agreement
- All documents as to the specific legal issue
Some lawyers will send out a questionnaire to be filled out before the meeting. Make sure you answer all the questions and send it back to the lawyer on time.
Conflict of Interest
If the lawyer is already representing the employer or another employee involved in the legal dispute, there may be a conflict of interest if she also represents you. You should prepare a list of anyone involved in the dispute, as well as any witnesses, to give to the lawyer. She can then look it over to see if she's already representing someone on the list. If she is, she probably won't represent you.
Goals for the Lawyer
Another helpful list to prepare before the meeting contains the goals you want to accomplish. This list will help let the lawyer know exactly what you're looking for in terms of legal service. Examples of goals include:
- Stopping employee discrimination
- Review of a legal document
- Help in negotiating a beneficial employment agreement
- Preventing harassment
- Responding to a threatening letter
- Help in deciding whether to pursue a lawsuit
Questions for the Lawyer
There will be many questions you'll want to ask the lawyer. However, it's very easy to forget many of them during the meeting. You should prepare a list of questions for the lawyer. These questions should be related to the legal issue at hand. Some examples of questions you may ask the lawyer include:
- What are the chances I will succeed in the legal dispute?
- Have you ever had similar case to mine, and, if so, what was the end result?
- Do you see any problems we may run into in the future?
- How long do you think the entire process will take?
- Will you be handling most of the work or will another lawyer?
- What is the method of payment?
- Is there anything I haven't brought that you'll need to decide whether the case is valid?