So you or somebody you know has gotten themselves into the situation of needing some legal representation. With all the different variables in regards to locating and choosing an attorney the task can become pretty daunting, this is where I come in. Sad as it may be, I've lived in five large metropolitan cities in the United States in the past 25 years, and being that I have worked in the legal field for over 35 years I have a good idea how one should go about located decent if not great representation. As easy as it might be to pick up the phone book and call the first number you can find, try to refrain from such practices and take heed in what I have to say.

First things first, put down the Yellow Pages. The Yellow Pages are 15 years ago, if I were writing this guide in 1985 I might tell you to pick up as many Telephone Directories as you could find?but it's not, and I won't. Anyone and everyone can place a phone directory ad, meaning the only distinction is ad size and how well written/designed it is. Money can fix all that, and these days for very minimal fees. This is not going to help you weed out the bad lawyers and attorneys, and might actually lead you towards the money grubbers.

Instead jump into the future and use the abundant amount of ?instant? data and feedback?The internet. Google, Yahoo, Ask.com and others like them, they are the new Yellow Pages. Start with a region, let's say Los Angeles for this example. You can start at google, do a search for Los Angeles Attorneys and see what you get?thousands and thousands of results. You're going to see the small lawyers, the big lawyers, the huge corporations and the single work out of my home attorneys in the search results. Most likely the more money they spend on their website, the higher the result will be in the search engines, again we have the yellow pages all over again. The secret is to search precisely what you're looking for in representation. Let's say you're looking for a divorce lawyer and am worried about the custody of your children becoming a tough issue. Try searching google for ?Highly Recommended Los Angeles Divorce and Custody Lawyers.? This search is going to find you much more highly targeted results, and less of them. No website is going to specialize on that keyword, what we call a ?long tail keyword? meaning the results you are going to get will be real, organic results. Nobody will have a page setup for that, so you will find real information that was written not to sell, but to inform.

Another place to look is a new website at http://www.legal-services-directory.com where the operators are working around the clock to collect information on regional legal representation in their areas. It might be a bit easier and a tad quicker to find the information you're looking for there, rather than google and the other search engines.

I hope these ideas will help you or anyone you know find great legal representation to assist in your legal matters.