How to Know If and When You Should Hire a Lawyer

It’s rarely easy to decide whether or not you need legal help. We hear about legal troubles in the news all the time, but this doesn’t make the decision any easier.

We hope this quick guide help you decide!

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Charged with a crime

If you’ve been charged with a crime, then it’s basically a must that you seek the help of a lawyer. Whatever you’ve been charged with, you have the right to a free attorney. (Understand that when they say “attorney”, they mean “lawyer”. The two terms are usually interchangeable.) However, you need to be able to prove that you cannot afford the legal help by yourself. If you’re unable to do this, then you should look into getting a lawyer yourself.

The type of crime you’ve been charged with will affect what kind of lawyer you can work with. You should also consider some other factors. Let’s say you’ve been charged with speeding. You committed the crime and you wish to admit to it. The court will probably go easy on you. You may even consider a no-contest plea. 

In these cases, a lawyer may not be essential. But you will need to use your own judgment, there. As for more serious crimes that can see jail time or high fines, I’d recommend legal help.

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Judging the cost and potential benefits

So what’s the main reason that most people don’t hire a lawyer? It’s not usually because they’re confident enough to believe that they’ll “get off easy” without the legal help. The vast majority of the time, it’s because they’re put off by the potentially high cost of using a lawyer. Now, I’m not going to sit here and tell you that lawyers are cheap. But you should focus less on the immediate cost of a lawyer and more on the potential benefits.

Let’s say you’re looking at an incredibly high fine. If the court pronounces you guilty and imposes a maximum fine, you could end up paying tens of thousands. The cost of the lawyer may very well be negated by the money you’d save by their negotiating a lower fine, and if you’re facing jail time, you should be considering how much you’re willing to spend to avoid the minimum and maximum amounts of time. 

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If your rights are being violated

Of course, I’ve spent a lot of time talking about this from a defence point of view. But many people will be thinking about getting legal help because they feel a crime or infraction has been committed against them. Let’s say you’ve made a financial transaction with a company. If they’ve taken more money from you than you’d agreed, your first step shouldn’t be legal action. You should try discussing it with them first. You should then take it up with your bank. If all else fails, then you should consider legal action. Of course, you could jump straight to that step if you want to put them in their place!

If your individual rights are being violated by anybody, however, you absolutely should take legal action. Your rights are one of the most important things that your country gives to you. They need to be protected at all costs. The chances are that a violation of your rights can be dealt with quickly in court, as long as the evidence is strong.