Why should I pay a lawyer for a consultation when I can get a free consultation?

There are many good attorneys practicing law today. For most of them, however, a “free consultation” is synonymous with an “initial consultation.” When you go to get a “free consultation,” you are a “potential client.” This means that potentially the lawyer will represent you. Free consultations are generally a tool for lawyers to evaluate whether to take a client or not. 

During the free consultation, the lawyer wants to find out about the nature of your legal issues. They want to evaluate whether representing you will be profitable to their firm. If they’re an hourly billing lawyer, they are considering whether you can pay their bills. If they are a lawyer who takes contingent fee cases, they are evaluating whether your case has enough value to justify their involvement. 

In addition to the financial aspects evaluated by an attorney through a free consultation, a savvy attorney will be looking for “red flags.” Red flags are non-monetary factors that will cause a good attorney to say “no” to representing you even if you have money or have a valuable contingency case. 

Red flags that attorneys look for include, but are not limited to the following:

• Do I like this potential client or are they a jerk?
• Does this potential client come across as entitled?
• Is this potential client so driven by “principal” that they will not listen to reason (For most all good attorneys, hearing someone say words to the effect of “it’s the principal of it” raises a red flag.)
• Is this potential client reasonable in their expectations regarding the objectives of representations and results that can be achieved?
• Is this potential client telling me the truth? Are they giving me the whole story? Are they honest? (Contrary to “conventional wisdom,” good attorneys put a high value on client honesty.)
• Is this person “shopping” for the lowest price.
• Has this potential worked with other attorneys regarding the same problem? (It raises red flags for an attorney if a potential client has been “fired” by another attorney.)

Free consultations are for vetting clients that have the added benefit of making the client feel listened to—everyone likes to be listened to. What’s in it for the firm, however, are the fees generated by the work performed after the initial consultation and, possibly, the goodwill generated by making the potential client feel like they were listened to. 

Because the benefit of the free consultation to the law firm is largely from work to be done after the consultation, I suspect that there is a tendency—conscious or, in most cases likely subconscious—to err on the side of recommending further services. This is particularly true if the lawyer or firm doesn’t have enough work to keep fully busy. I do not intend to suggest that attorneys knowingly create work to generate fees. But often, to a “hammer,” everything is a “nail.” 

What do I mean by that? Take for example a couple who go to see an estate planning attorney who focuses on methods for reducing tax on estates. If the couple have a minor issue with estate taxes, the method for reducing the tax may be more expensive and difficult to implement than it is worth. If the attorney sees elimination of tax as the primary goal of their practice, they may be more likely to recommend that the client pursue legal services that will eliminate tax liability without giving adequate weight to whether it is worth the effort and expense to do so. The very nature of an attorney’s practice may subconsciously lead them to recommend services for the client that are unnecessary or unduly expensive.

Free consultations are not inherently bad. They can be good. But it is important that you approach free consultations with full knowledge of what it entails for you and for the attorney. If you go into a free consultation expecting that you are a “client” or that the attorney is going to give you the advice you need during the consultation, you’re likely to be disappointed. If you are looking for assistance and legal advice in the course of a consultation, you are likely to get greater value when you pay for it.