When making purchases and buying a service online, it’s seldom for websites not to include reviews. If you look at some powerful eCommerce and online retailers’ sites, there are reviews of different degrees that rate a product or service by the customers.
For so many years, the legal profession has remained and didn’t go through massive shifts in the industry because the law barely changes its structure and how legal counsels acquire clients.
Lawyers are always in demand for litigation and licensing purposes, and it’s hard to find lawyers with a seasoned track record because thousands of law students graduate every year. Insignificant cases, it’s easy to find a lawyer that’s great with experience, but for the time being, reviews are essential to finding the right attorney for your legal needs.
Why are reviews critical?
Product and service reviews, in general, are helpful references for customers who want to know if they are effective in their purposes.
For lawyers, it’s especially needed to have reviews because a lawyer is responsible for mitigating problems that are so consequential to the clients’ lives. In addition, a good review will relieve the client’s worries about any legal actions against them.
Most importantly, it’s a good marketing strategy if good reviews are ubiquitous. More people will lean towards hiring attorneys, mediators or arbitrators if the reviews from other clients are favorable and legal suits are resolved.
Things to look for in reviews
When looking to hire legal councils, these are the aspects in reviews that you should look for:
- The rating
Ratings come in stars, numbers, or a binary system where it says good or bad. This gives you a general idea of the services your lawyers are visually providing to other clients.
- Short testimonies and stories
With reviews, some take their time writing the experiences shared with the lawyers they hired that will help future clients have a general idea of how this specific lawyer operates.
It would help if you took the time to read this so that you’ll know the lawyer already before even meeting with them. Make sure to collect a cluster of testimonies to find consistency because that’s also a key factor to look for in products and services.
- The website of the law firm
On all websites that you visit, it’s essential to look at the SSL certificate before clicking on sites. SSL certification is a digital authenticator that gives you security when browsing online.
A law firm should have an SSL certificate because they handle confidential information relating to a client’s case, easily hacked and sold online.
Reviews are worthless if the law firm’s site is unsecured, and it’s best to run away from these as much as possible.
Trusted website reviews for general law firms
There are a lot of conventions attorneys use to let their services go public for people to see. Some sly attorneys use bad websites that are unsafe for transmitting the information.
So, here’s a reference of websites that are guaranteed safe and secure:
- Google My Business Reviews
- Facebook review sites
- Yelp review sites
- Yahoo work reviews
- Glassdoor reviews
- Better Business Bureau® Reviews
- Easy Review Site Reviews
Other sites not listed require heavy research, so you’ll get a guaranteed secure network where you and your lawyers can communicate.
What do you do if there are no reviews provided?
Suppose, for some reason, you can’t find any reviews of a lawyer you’re particularly interested in. In that case, you can ask for reviews and testimonies from other clients that the lawyer represented in the past.
It is your right, after all, to ask questions that affect their welfare in the legal world, so don’t be shy of asking your lawyer for more information.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that online reviews should be regulated as a requirement for all service providers to help clients have a relieving feeling when picking their representatives on the court. There is simply no excuse for any firms not to have a system of reviews somewhere, and their lawyers should abide by them as well.
Attorneys are supposed to be vanguards of justice, and it’s within their obligation to provide quality services that people can trust and rely on for their legal needs.
