Chances are that at some point in your life you are going to need to work with a law firm. It may involve a criminal case or a civil case, such as a personal injury case. There are a number of reasons why you may need legal advice at some point, and when you do, it’s good to do your research to make sure you hire an attorney with the right experience and expertise.
One of the most common reasons people need an attorney is that they are going through divorce. You may be happy in your marriage and think splitting up will never happen to you, but keep this statistics in mind: 41% of first marriages end up in divorce. And if you divorce and marry again, you are even more likely to get a divorce. Second marriages fail at a 60% rate, and 73% of third marriages wind up in divorce court. That’s a lot of divorces, adding up to 876,000 a year in the U.S. What’s more, nearly one-third of divorcing couples have children who are under the age of 18. Even if you and your spouse are splitting up amiably, you still need to work with a law firm to protect your financial interests as well as your custody rights if you have children.
Another common reason people engage the services of an attorney is for some sort of civil action. This might be filing a lawsuit or defending against one involving personal injury from a car crash or some other accident. Civil suits could also involve issues such as libel or slander.
People also sometimes hire lawyers to help them with some personal legal task, such as the purchase or sale of property or setting up a will or trust. In these cases, it is a good idea to work with a law firm that has the right kind of expertise to ensure these transactions go as they are supposed to.
Of course, the one reason no one wants to work with a law firm is because of a criminal charge, but that’s kind of situation in which it is vital that you have an experienced attorney on your side. Even for relatively minor charges like trespassing, having a lawyer can help you can get the charge or the penalty reduced. And considering about 10,000 people are wrongly convicted of serious crimes each year in the U.S., having a competent attorney on your side can be the difference between freedom and incarceration.
