Although many attorneys are honest, there are some lawyers who will shade the truth in order to convince you to become or stay a client.
Here are 3 common lies some attorneys will tell you…
Lie # 1 – “We can handle your Internet business contracts, prepare your will, and represent you in a personal injury lawsuit too.”
As a practical matter, the law has become too complex for an attorney to be a jack-of-all-trades and still competently represent clients. Very few attorneys can do a good job representing clients in more than 2 to 3 areas of law…and these areas of law are often related. The attorney who claims to be able to handle a dozen areas of law is probably taking anything that comes in the door because he’s desperate for work.
Lie #2 – “Because we are a large law firm, we understand Internet business law.”
Size of a law firm doesn’t determine whether an attorney is competent to represent you in a particular legal matter. You’ll probably hear this lie from an older corporate lawyer who understands little or nothing about ecommerce and Internet law. Instead, he’s hoping that the young new associate attorney who works for him will know enough about technology to get the job done. In all likelihood, you’ll be overpaying for that newbie lawyer to learn the basics of Internet law and how ecommerce operates.
Lie #3 – “Since we handle Internet-related lawsuits, we can represent your company in ecommerce transactions too.”
There are good litigation attorneys and there are good transactional lawyers. Even though they may both know Internet business law, their skill sets are very different. Trial lawyers look for remedies in court. On the other hand, transactional attorneys try to prevent things from ending up in court.
If you’re looking for someone to represent you in an Internet-related lawsuit, go with the litigator who understands ecommerce law. However, when you need help with transactions (such as buying or selling an Internet business, preparation of website legal documents, or drafting ecommerce contracts); you’ll want to retain an experienced transactional attorney who understands Internet business law.
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