New Zealand Law Society - Choosing a lawyer and your first appointment
To find the right help for your legal issue, you’ll need a lawyer who has expertise in the type of work required for your situation.
Lawyers tend to have specialist areas of work, which means they have skills and experience particular to one or several areas of law.
It is a helpful starting point to identify the type of specialist experience required for your situation. For example, if you are in a dispute with someone, you will need a litigation lawyer. If you are buying a property, you will need a property lawyer. Sometimes you might need a lawyer with more than one area of expertise.
Unsure where to start?
If you don’t know what the subject matter is, you can still reach out to a lawyer who will be able to help you clarify the type of expertise required and send you in the right direction.
The common legal issues and Community Law Manual may be a useful starting point. You can also search the public Register of Lawyers or the ‘Find a lawyer’ tool on our website.
You can check your lawyer’s expertise on their website or when you call for an appointment. Asking family, friends and colleagues for recommendations can also be a helpful way of finding a lawyer.
Anyone who provides legal services in Aotearoa New Zealand and uses specified terms such as 'lawyer', must hold a current practising certificate issued by the New Zealand Law Society Te Kāhui Ture o Aotearoa. To find out if the person has a practising certificate, you can search our Register of Lawyers.
Some work of a legal nature may also be done by non-lawyers. Your lawyer can help you understand what help only they can provide, and what work can be done by others. Even if a non-lawyer can do the type of work you need, they still can’t call themselves a “lawyer".
It’s important to be mindful of misleading descriptions by advocates and non-lawyers.
Find out more: Who is and isn’t a lawyer
Contacting a lawyer can sometimes feel daunting. But remember, they are here to help you.
Lawyers take different approaches to responding to inquiries from potential clients. Sometimes you might have an initial conversation with a lawyer, who will then invite you to meet to discuss the issue in more detail. In other cases, you may speak with the lawyer’s personal assistant or a legal executive or assistant to start with. They may ask you some initial questions and then set up an appointment for you to speak directly with a lawyer.
In any case, it is helpful to have a list of questions you want to ask. This should include asking about initial fees. Some lawyers will offer a free initial meeting to understand the issues you face, but others may charge you for this. You can also ask about how long the initial appointment will take and whether you should bring anything.
It’s ok to talk to a few different lawyers to inquire about their fees and experience before you decide on which one to book an appointment with.
Tips for your initial conversation with a lawyer
- Make a list of issues you want to discuss.
- Enquire about their fees.
- Ask when they are available to meet and discuss further.
- Take notes of anything they say.
If the lawyer cannot help you – don’t worry. They may be able to suggest someone who can, or recommend a different course of action for you to follow. You could also ask them to suggest any public resources that might be useful.
Before you meet, it can be helpful to prepare an outline of the situation for the lawyer if the background is complex - like a dispute with someone else. However, you may not need to do this if you are seeking help with a transaction (such as having a contract reviewed or buying a property). Here is some preparation work you can do prior to your first appointment:
Six questions you could ask in the first appointment
- What experience do you have in cases like mine?
- What are my options in this situation?
- Which option do you recommend and why?
- What is the most likely outcome for my case?
- How much is this likely to cost?
- How often will you update me on my case?
You don’t have to instruct the lawyer just because you had an initial appointment with them. If you don't wish to work with the lawyer further, let them know as soon as possible to avoid any additional costs. If you tell them by phone, it's best to send an email confirmation to summarise the phone conversation.
You can change lawyers after they have started working on your case. However, you will need to pay them for any work they have already done. If you don’t pay the lawyer for this work, they may not hand over your file to the new lawyer(including any original documents you have provided them).
The lawyer may not be right for you if
- They didn't answer all your questions in a way that you understood.
- The fees are too expensive.
- You couldn't agree on how the issue should be addressed.
- They cannot do the work in the timeframe required.
If you've decided to engage the lawyer for your case, you may need to provide documents confirming your name, date of birth and address so that the lawyer can meet their obligations under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act.
You may also need to provide other documents to allow the lawyer to complete your work.