How to Find the Right Lawyer for Employment Issues
Whether your employer terminated you without providing you notice or any severance and claimed they had cause for termination, or you simply have a question about an offer letter, there are many reasons you may need help protecting your rights in the workplace.
Credit: Pavel Danilyuk via Pexels
If you need a lawyer for employment issues, you need to trust that they can successfully handle your case, that they are respected within their profession and that you can ask as many questions as you need to if you don’t understand something.
Using those criteria as your benchmark, the tips below can help you find an employment lawyer who fits the bill.
Consult Your Network
Reach out to the friends and family you feel comfortable enough asking and have them canvas their networks. A genuinely positive referral from someone you can trust is usually a good sign. You may still want to meet with other lawyers before making a final decision to get different perspectives, know your options and make an informed decision.
Search Online
The Law Society of Ontario is good starting-off point. They have a number of ways to search their online directory including by name, location, specialty and language. They can also give you the name of a lawyer in your area who will provide you with a free, 30-minute consultation. When you search for a lawyer on the site, it will tell you if that lawyer has been subject to any disciplinary actions in the past so use it when you’re considering hiring a lawyer you haven’t already searched.
When you visit lawyers’ websites, look for published articles or thought leadership pieces they’ve written and read their bios to get a feel for their experience. Don’t forget to search them on Google to see if they’ve ever made the news and to read their past clients’ online reviews.
Prepare for One-on Ones
You can prepare yourself for meeting with lawyers by writing out your story with as much detail as possible. Not knowing the law, you may omit a key detail you thought was trivial that can actually make or break your case. Also, writing out what happened can help jog your memory.
This interview is also for you to find out about the person who will play a significant role in the outcome of your case. After you’ve written out your version of events, write down questions to help you gauge their level of experience and competence handling your type of case. Ask how many they’ve done, what their track record is like and ask them to tell you about a few of their cases, how they were similar, how they were different, the strategies they chose for each and why.
During the interview, take mental notes and ask yourself these questions:
- Did the lawyer take notes?
- Were they engaged or distracted?
- Was their phone chiming in throughout the interview?
- Were they patient with your questions?
- Did they make any promises or guarantees about the outcome?
Good lawyers have to be attentive listeners and you want someone representing you who seems genuinely interested in what happens to you. You also need to work with a lawyer that acts professionally. If they don’t turn their phone off during the interview or kept promising you that they can get you exactly what you want and that your case is a slam dunk, these are major red flags.
Discuss fees
It’s vital that your lawyer explain to you in great detail their fee structure, when payments are due, how costs and disbursements are paid and give you an estimate of what the total cost will be. If a lawyer doesn’t do these things, it’s best to move on and find one that does.
