17 Questions to Ask a Lawyer Before You Hire

The consultation is free. That phrase does a lot of work in legal marketing, and it quietly reframes the meeting as a favor the firm is doing you. It isn’t. It’s a mutual audition. The lawyer is deciding whether your case is worth the capital it will consume; you are deciding whether to hand a stranger a third of a settlement and several years of your life.

Most people walk into that meeting with a folder of documents and no questions. They leave having answered everything and asked nothing. Then, eighteen months later, they discover their case is being handled by a paralegal they’ve never met, that the firm settles almost everything before filing suit, and that a line in the fee agreement moves the contingency from 33 percent to 40 percent the moment a lawsuit is filed — a fact nobody hid, exactly, but nobody volunteered either.

What follows is a checklist built around five things you actually need to know. Print it, screenshot it, write it on the back of an envelope. Bring it. Lawyers who are good at their jobs are not offended by a prepared client — they are relieved.

First, a note on how to use these

You will not get through seventeen questions in a thirty-minute meeting, and you shouldn’t try. Pick the six or seven that matter most for your situation and ask those properly, with follow-ups. A question asked once and abandoned tells you almost nothing. A question asked and then pushed on — “what does that look like in practice?” — tells you everything.

Pay less attention to the content of the answers than to their texture. Specific beats confident. A lawyer who says “I tried a case like yours in March, we got a defense verdict, and here’s what I’d do differently” is worth more than one who says “we win these all the time.” Vagueness under direct questioning is data.

Experience: the four questions about track record

Every firm’s website says it has decades of combined experience. Combined is the tell — it means adding four attorneys’ careers together to reach a bigger number. What matters is the experience of the specific person sitting across from you, with the specific type of case you have.

1. How many cases like mine have you personally handled in the last three years?

The time limit is doing the work here. “Thirty years of experience” can mean thirty years of doing something else. Recent volume in your case type is what predicts competence — the medicine changes, the case law changes, and the local defense bar changes.

2. Have you tried a case to verdict? When was the last one?

Upwards of ninety-five percent of civil cases settle, so a lawyer who rarely tries cases isn’t automatically a bad lawyer. But insurance carriers keep internal data on which firms actually go to trial, and they price offers accordingly. A firm that has never taken a case to a jury is negotiating without a credible threat, and the adjuster on the other side knows it.

3. What’s the range of outcomes you’ve seen on cases like mine?

Notice this asks for a range, not a number. Any lawyer who promises a specific figure at a first meeting — before medical treatment is finished, before records are pulled, before the policy limits are confirmed — is either guessing or selling. Ethics rules in every state prohibit guaranteeing results. A useful answer sounds like: “Cases with this injury profile and this liability picture usually land between X and Y, and here are the three facts that would move you toward the top of that band.”

4. Do you know the defense firms and adjusters in this county?

Local knowledge is underrated and hard to fake. Judges have tendencies, jury pools have personalities, and certain defense counsel settle reasonably while others litigate everything to the courthouse steps. A lawyer who works your venue regularly will answer this with names and specifics in about four seconds.

Strategy: what they would actually do next

This is the section most people skip, and it is the most revealing. You are asking a professional to think out loud about your problem before you’ve paid them anything. How they handle that request tells you what working with them will feel like.

5. What’s the weakest part of my case?

The single best question on this list. Every case has a soft spot — a gap in treatment, a comparative fault argument, a prior injury to the same body part, a recorded statement you shouldn’t have given. A lawyer who has read your facts carefully will name it immediately. One who tells you your case is airtight has either not looked or is managing you rather than advising you.

6. What are the first three things you’d do in the first thirty days?

You want to hear concrete moves: preservation letters, a scene inspection before evidence disappears, requesting the 911 audio and any traffic or business surveillance footage, identifying every applicable policy including underinsured motorist coverage. Early evidence work is where cases are quietly won or lost, and firms that do it will describe it with enthusiasm.

7. Realistically, how long will this take?

An honest answer includes a range and the variables that stretch it: whether you’re still treating, whether liability is disputed, how backlogged the local civil docket is. If a firm suggests a quick settlement is likely, ask whether that’s because the case is simple or because quick settlement is the firm’s business model. Those are very different reasons.

8. Under what circumstances would you recommend filing suit?

Filing changes the economics for everyone — including your lawyer, whose fee percentage typically rises. You want a firm with an actual threshold, articulated in advance, rather than one that treats litigation as unthinkable or inevitable.

Money: the fee conversation, done properly

Most injury representation runs on contingency, which means no fee unless there’s a recovery. That structure is genuinely client-friendly, and it is also where the least-read paragraphs of the agreement live. Our guide to contingency fees goes deeper, but four questions belong in the room with you.

9. What is the percentage, and does it change?

Tiered fees are standard and legitimate — often around a third pre-suit and closer to forty percent after filing, sometimes higher after an appeal. What matters is that you hear the tiers out loud before you sign, not discover them at settlement.

10. Is the fee calculated before or after case costs are deducted?

This one question can be worth thousands of dollars, and almost nobody asks it. Taking the fee off the gross recovery and then subtracting costs produces a meaningfully smaller check than subtracting costs first and taking the fee off the net. Both approaches exist. Ask which one the agreement uses, then find the sentence that says so.

11. Who advances case costs, and what happens if we lose?

Expert witnesses, court reporters, filing fees, and medical record retrieval add up fast — five figures is routine in a litigated case. Most firms advance these and recover them from the settlement. Ask explicitly whether you owe those costs if the case produces nothing. Get the answer in writing.

12. Who handles my medical liens and outstanding bills?

Health insurers, Medicare, Medicaid, and hospitals often have reimbursement rights against your settlement. A firm that actively negotiates those liens down can add more to your net recovery than a slightly lower fee percentage would. Ask whether lien negotiation is included in the fee or billed separately.

Communication: the thing people actually complain about

Look at any state bar’s disciplinary summaries and the same category dominates year after year: failure to communicate. Not incompetence, not theft — silence. Clients rarely fire lawyers for losing. They fire them for going dark.

13. How often will I hear from you, even when nothing is happening?

The phrase even when nothing is happening is the important half. Litigation contains long dead stretches — waiting on records, waiting on a court date. A firm with a policy of proactive monthly check-ins during quiet periods has thought about the client experience. One that says “we’ll call when there’s news” is describing months of silence without realizing it.

14. What’s the realistic turnaround when I call or email?

Twenty-four to forty-eight business hours is a fair standard. Ask who responds when the attorney is in trial for two weeks, and whether there’s a client portal where you can see case status without calling anyone.

Staffing: who actually works the file

The most common gap between expectation and reality in legal services is this one. The lawyer who charms you in the consultation is often the firm’s intake attorney or a named partner making a courtesy appearance. The person who will read your medical records, write your demand letter, and call you back is someone else entirely.

15. Who will be my day-to-day contact, and can I meet them today?

There is nothing wrong with a paralegal or case manager running your file — experienced paralegals are often the most competent people in the building. What’s wrong is not being told. Ask for a name. Ask to shake their hand before you leave.

16. Which attorney signs the pleadings and takes the depositions?

If the answer isn’t the person in front of you, ask to meet the person it is. Also ask whether the firm refers cases out to other firms and how fees are split if so — that arrangement is legal in most states with your written consent, but you should know before it happens, not after.

17. How many open cases does that person carry right now?

Rarely asked, quietly diagnostic. Caseloads in high-volume firms can run into the hundreds per attorney. A lawyer who answers honestly and explains their support structure is being straight with you. A lawyer who bristles at the question has told you something too.

Answers that should end the meeting

• A guaranteed dollar amount or a promise that you’ll “definitely win.” Prohibited by professional conduct rules almost everywhere, and a reliable marker of a sales operation.
• Pressure to sign today, or a retainer presented before your questions are finished. Legitimate firms know the statute of limitations gives you time to think, and they’ll say so.
• Refusal to let you take the fee agreement home and read it. It’s a contract. You get to read contracts.
• Discomfort when you ask who handles the file. That question has an easy answer at a well-run firm.
• Any suggestion that you exaggerate symptoms, see a specific doctor for reasons that aren’t medical, or delay reporting something. Leave. Immediately.

Consult more than one

Two or three consultations cost you an afternoon and nothing else. The comparison is where the value sits — you cannot evaluate a single answer in isolation, but you can absolutely tell which of three lawyers understood your case fastest and described the hard parts most honestly. If you are already fielding an insurance offer while you shop, read how represented and unrepresented claims compare before you accept anything.

One last calibration. After the meeting, ask yourself a plain question: did this person explain things in a way that made me feel smarter, or in a way that made me feel dependent? Good lawyers do the first. It costs them nothing and it is, over years of a case, the difference between a client and a hostage.