Preparing to meet your lawyer

Once you have arranged your first meeting with a solicitor, it’s a good idea to gather your paperwork together and work out what questions you want to ask. Otherwise, you could end up wasting time. Failing to prepare could also end up costing you money as you may have to return at some point to hand in documents, or re-schedule the meeting, and you could delay your solicitor from starting work.

The following, therefore, is a suggested checklist of things to do before meeting your lawyer. Remember, that every circumstance is unique, so there may be preparation to do above and beyond the following.

Make a list of all the questions you want to ask your solicitor. Spend plenty of time on this, and start it early so that you can think about it properly. Typical questions might include:

• whether the lawyer has handled similar cases;
• what are your options;
• how will the lawyer go about handling your case, what is the process;
• how long is it likely to take,
• how much will it cost, and what are the best funding options available;
• whether he or she foresees any problems; and
• will the lawyer handle the work his or herself, or will it be passed on to someone else?

Gather together all the paperwork relevant to your case. For example, this could be your title documents and details of your mortgage if you are selling a property. It could be a contract of employment or other contract, emails and letters, photos, an accident report, an employee handbook or witness statements. It could be a handwritten note by a bystander. You should take anything that you think might be relevant to your case.

Take any insurance documents relating to your legal problem, such as travel insurance, as this could be useful for securing funding. Membership of professional organisation or union membership may also be relevant. If you intend to claim legal aid, then your solicitor should be able to advise you in advance what you will need to bring as proof of income.

You could write a chronological summary of the facts of your case. Think: who, where, when, why and how? This will help you when it comes to explaining the facts to your solicitor. Your summary should include the names of the people involved, and the dates of when problems began or when you received any correspondence. It is very important to include accurate dates. Otherwise, your solicitor could miss crucial deadlines. People’s names are important, not just for information-gathering purposes, but because the lawyer may want to make sure there is no conflict of interest if the solicitors’ firm acts for anyone on the other side of the dispute.

Write down the latest state of play. What is the current situation?

Think what your expectations are. What do you hope to achieve by consulting a solicitor? What would be your ideal outcome?

Some solicitors ask clients to fill in a questionnaire before the initial meeting, to help them organise their thoughts.

If you want your solicitor to review a contract or other legal document, then you could work out the areas of concern, and your goals.

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