Lawyer Referral Services in the U.S. Part One

Type in the search term "lawyer referral service" into Google (with the quotes, for an exact match) and you'll get nearly a million results. So what are you actually getting in the way of information? And what exactly is a lawyer referral service? Most state bar associations operate function as a LRS (links to articles about each are listed below); however there is generally a caveat to their recomendation - that is that whomever the attorney that is referred is first in line in the bar's availability list. You don't really have an opportunity to examine all the potential attorneys you could retain. With a service such as LegalMatch, your case is presented to one or more local attorneys who them can respond to it with an offer of services. The advantage for you is the opportunity to compare fees, methods, and review each attorneys profile so that you can choose the most appropriate attorney to represent you rather spin the rolodex and see who comes up.

• Attorney Referral Services in Florida
  The state of Florida has many lawyer referral services, or “LRS” organizations.  Some of these are privately operated, but most of these are operated by a legal bar association.  For example, the Florida State Bar itself offers a lawyer referral service for selected counties.  However, the State Bar lawyer referral service program does not cover all of Florida’s counties.
• Arizona Attorney Referral Service
  The State Bar of Arizona’s website offers an easy-to-use and useful attorney referral service.  After inputting your location and the area of law that you are concerned with, a list of lawyers appears.  You can also indicate a preferred language and law school if you want. 
• Washington Attorney Referral Services
  The Washington State Bar Association does not offer any attorney referral service.  Some county bar associations do offer this service - the State Bar’s website has contact information for them.  However, it appears that only 6 counties in Washington offer lawyer referrals.
• Attorney Referral Services in Colorado
  The Colorado Bar Association offers a limited “Find-A-Lawyer” program on their website.  This program asks for the area of law you are concerned with and the county you are in.  The program then provides a list of lawyers fitting those requirements.

More about lawyer referral services in next week's posting.