Many law firms offer potential clients a free consultation. While this can be a helpful service, it should not be confused with free advice. A free consultation is merely an opportunity for a law firm to look over your case and review whether you are ready to move forward with legal action.
While you will likely be able to get some of the questions you have answered during a free consultation, you probably won’t get an in-depth analysis of your case. Most law firms use free consultations as a preliminary step before moving forward with your case.
At 1Law, we offer a free legal chat tool that serves as a substitute for a free consultation.
All Free Consultations Are Not Created Equally
What constitutes a free consultation can vary significantly from one law firm to another. When a lawyer says they offer free consultations, you should not expect a thorough examination of your case accompanied by advice on how to proceed.
A free consultation often means simply that the firm will briefly review your case and tell you whether or not they can represent you at this point. While this is often the case, that does not mean that this is the service offered by all law firms advertising free consultations.
Some of these law firms will dive a bit deeper into the circumstances of your case and answer any questions you may have while giving you legal advice on what steps to take next.
Why Don’t All Law Firms Offer Free Legal Advice?
Many law firms simply do not have the resources to provide free legal advice to all potential clients. While they might be able to do a quick consultation and advise you that your case is not strong enough, more specific advice than that requires a more thorough analysis of your case.
Many law firms get so many requests for free consultations that if they gave each one a thorough review and provided in-depth legal advice, they wouldn’t have time to actually represent any clients.
In other circumstances, you may seek a free consultation and end up talking to someone else at the firm who isn’t a practicing lawyer. In reality, these end up being case evaluations by a client intake specialist or paralegal who isn’t offering legal advice, but rather interviewing you and evaluating whether you may or may not have a case worth pursuing.
Unfortunately, there are rarely quick and easy answers when it comes to legal problems. If a lawyer attempts to offer you detailed advice on your case without knowing all the particulars, they are likely to lead you down the wrong path.
Are Free Consultations Useless?
As mentioned, some free consultations are quite thorough and are definitely worth your time. However, even free consultations that are brief and do not go into detail about your case can still be helpful to a degree. You can find out if your case is ready to move forward or if you lack the legal standing to pursue a lawsuit at this point.
It is essential to make sure you don’t have unrealistic expectations when going into a free consultation. Your free consultation is unlikely to give you all the answers you want, but it may give you enough information to make a decision on how to proceed.
Why Pay for a Consultation?
Some law offices don’t offer free consultations at all and instead only offer paid consultations to potential clients. Like with free consultations, there are pros and cons to a paid consultation.
With a paid consultation, a lawyer will dive deeper into your case than in most free consultations. However, if it turns out that the law is not on your side and you don’t have a case, you will be paying for information that you would likely receive for free from a free consultation.
On the other hand, if you do have a case, you won’t waste time getting minimal information from a free consultation. Instead, you will get all the information you need to figure out how to proceed with your case.
Free Legal Chat at 1Law
At 1Law, we offer an option outside of a free consultation to get the answers you need about your case at no cost. You can use our legal chat tool to talk to a lawyer for free and get the information you need so that you can decide how best to proceed.
Using our free legal chat tool, you can get answers to all your questions from experts in a wide range of legal fields. Using our legal chat tool does not establish an attorney-client relationship. However, after getting the information you need for your preliminary questions, you can browse our directory of attorneys to find a lawyer to help you move forward with your case.
Check out our free legal chat tool today to get the legal advice you need. Alternatively, you can contact us to obtain a free consultation. We are here to help answer all your questions and put you in the best possible position.
