Why is it worth paying for legal services?

It is not for nothing that a wise man likes to say that he is not so rich that he can buy cheap things. Too cheap a product is often harmful to health and often serves no purpose at all. This is doubly true of the free stuff.

Legal advice, a service like any other

Advocacy is a craft. A lawyer can be compared to a carpenter, for example. They will prepare a contract for you, represent you in court and before the authorities or give you advice. A carpenter will make a table or chair or a cupboard to suit the client’s needs. Both will spend time on their work and have other costs associated with it. However, there are also fundamental differences. Not in the substance of the thing, but in the perception of it. No one asks a carpenter to make a chair for them out of familiarity at their own expense, and preferably immediately. The carpenter’s product is solid, smells of wood and can last for ages. Legal advice can be just a bunch of ones and zeros in a client’s computer email. Yet behind it is often the careful work of an entire team of lawyers. It cannot be replicated and sold to someone else.

Lawyer’s liability for legal advice given

A client does not just buy tailored legal advice or a contract from a lawyer. In particular, the client buys the lawyer’s responsibility for his professional advice. This liability is already automatically included in the lawyer’s fee. It is something that he or she will never get in a free legal consultation. Just as a carpenter warrants his furniture, a lawyer must warrant his advice. A lawyer is not only putting his reputation on the line, but also his property. A lawyer should provide professional service to his client. However, the lawyer even has to give the client a guarantee for his advice, thus transferring to himself the risk of bad practice, for which he guarantees his private property. This obligation of lawyers is not only regulated by the Code of Ethics but also by the Advocacy Act.

So why is it worth paying for legal services?

Advice found somewhere on the internet may not be based on anything and often leads the client into more trouble than no advice at all. a “free” lawyer in a legal aid office may be inexperienced and lack the proper motivation to attend to the client. Moreover, a lawyer is not a legal advisor who depends on income from another person; his or her only interest is to serve the client as best as possible, not a third party (e.g., a bank or real estate agency). Americans say there is no such thing as a free lunch. There is something to this in Europe as well. Therefore, if one wants to make sure that he makes the right decision in a crucial situation and only in his own interest, he must be prepared to pay the person who will help him with such a decision. In doing so, he should not rely on free legal advice, because nothing will bring him certainty.