Looking for a lawyer

[83Magna]

Hi guys. I'm going to start the separation with my common law wife shortly and am looking for a lawyer to represent me. I figured this would be a good place to get input on which Ottawa lawyers are better and which to avoid.

I heard good things about one particular lawyer, and I contacted her and sat with her for an hour, and felt really good after our talk. Then I had some unrelated family matters put the separation on the back burner, and when I contacted her again she said she was too busy for new clients. She offered to recommend someone but hasn't replied to any of my calls or emails, suffice it to say I don't have a lot of faith in whoever she recommends if she can't even reply to me!

Any and all help is appreciated guys.

Thanks.

[Stillbreathing]

You can get a referral from the law society. If you have EAP from work and they refer a lawyer to you then you can have a free telephone consultation. If you decide to retain that lawyer you get 20 or 25% off their fees. You can also check out the lawyers in your area and then check out their rating on ratemylawyer.com. If you go to the court you can get a recommendation there as well.

[nfc4ever]

The LSUC referral service automatically comes with a 30 min conversation with the lawyer.

You have a couple of options in terms of lawyers: traditional and collaborative. Collaborative are artsy fartsy and will hold hands and hug to try and mediate a response. I had poor mileage with one, and am jaded. I'd go with a traditional lawyer - there is nothing stopping one from using mediation as a tool.

Also if you have a short list, go to Canlii.org and search the lawyers name, it will give you an idea if they go to court (some lawyers don't), and how they've done. Not all cases make it to Canlii though. You can also search the law society's website for disciplinary information.

I'll PM you a couple of names of people I used for independant legal advice.

[plainNamedDad44]

OP, if you can self rep and retain counsel on a limited basis. This will keep your costs down immensely.

I have been through several lawyers in Ottawa. I would strongly recommend Sarah Kennedy.... she is smart, reasonably priced and will work on a limited retainer.

Keep a strong, strong grip on billing...

Do everything you can to self rep.....

[plainNamedDad44]

Also invest in a good scanner and make full use of cloud based file storage to organize yourself.

Also get yourself a virtual fax service.