Did you know that the State of Israel holds a world record and has the largest number of lawyers in the world in relation to the entire population? As of today, there are more than 80,000 lawyers in Israel, which means that today there is approximately one lawyer for every 126 residents in the country. In such a situation, the question arises who is a good lawyer or a recommended lawyer, and how do you locate a good lawyer or a recommended lawyer?
Some of you read these lines and say to yourself "I have no problem finding a good lawyer or a recommended lawyer, I have at least one in the family". This may be true, but you will be surprised to find out that every month people Google dozens of searches for the terms: "recommended lawyer", "good lawyer", "best lawyer in Israel", "recommended civil lawyer", and many other terms.
Here is some data on Google searches (in Hebrew):
So let's see how to locate a good lawyer or a recommended lawyer in Israel.
Is there such a thing as a good lawyer for everyone?
Before you start looking for a good lawyer or a recommended lawyer, it is important to understand that "good" or "recommended" are relative concepts. It is possible that what is considered "good" or "recommended" for one person may not necessarily be considered "good" or "recommended" for another person. A good lawyer in one legal matter is not necessarily considered a good lawyer in another legal matter. A person who needs the services of a criminal lawyer will not hire the services of a good civil lawyer, because such a lawyer is not "good" for this specific issue.
For this reason, you must first understand that there are different areas of law handled by different lawyers. There is not one lawyer in Israel who deals with all possible areas of law, and if you come across a lawyer who presents himself as such, this should turn on a red light for you. Generally, each lawyer focuses on several areas of practice and devotes his time to handling cases in those areas of expertise. In large law firms there are different departments, which are managed by different lawyers, and there you can find a very wide variety of different lawyers dealing in different fields.
After you understand that it is important to focus your search for a good lawyer according to the subject of your problem, you can move on and understand what you need to check before hiring the services of a lawyer and how to do it in practice.
Is a lawyer's seniority an indication of being a good lawyer?
There is an assumption among the public that a veteran lawyer is necessarily a good lawyer or a recommended lawyer. Does this mean that a lawyer with thirty years of experience is necessarily better than a lawyer with five years of experience? From personal experience I can tell you that in most cases there is no connection between being a lawyer with a lot of experience and being a good or recommended lawyer.
As a lawyer with more than a decade of experience, I have had many opportunities to deal with both senior and younger lawyers. Veteran lawyers sometimes proved to be clearly unskilled, and in contrast, young lawyers sometimes surprised for the better. For this reason, I can tell you with full confidence that seniority does not necessarily indicate the quality of the lawyer, and therefore, I recommend focusing on other parameters that will give you a better indication.
Does the size of the law firm indicate the nature of the lawyer?
The size of the law firm or the number of lawyers employed in the firm are not necessarily an indication of the quality of a particular lawyer. My law firm is considered a "small" one, at the same time, I submit many requests for the approval of class actions against large international or Israeli companies. These companies hire the services of the largest and best-known firms in Israel to defend them in the courts. Do you think this led to the companies' victory in court? Definitely not!
You can read the coverage in the media about my successes in class action lawsuits and other lawsuits against large entities that hired the largest and well-known law firms in Israel. These articles about my successes speak for themselves.
A good lawyer is measured by results (but not only)
The bottom line is that a lawyer is expected to obtain for his client the best possible result in court. If you are looking for a good lawyer regarding a defamation lawsuit, check whether the lawyer you intend to contact deals in this field (this can be easily checked by going to the lawyer's website and seeing what areas of law his office handles) and what results he has achieved in the past.
Those who have access to legal databases such as "Nevo" will be able to search and filter according to the name of the lawyer and the subject of the claim. Those who do not have access to legal databases can search for the lawyer's name on Google and try to find cases that the lawyer has handled in the past.
Didn't find information on Google? This does not mean that the lawyer is not a good lawyer but simply that the files of that lawyer were not covered by the media. In such a situation, you can call a lawyer and tell him that you are considering hiring his services, but you want to receive several judgments in cases similar to yours, which were handled by the same lawyer. This way you can read the judgments and find out whether a lawyer actually reached good results for his clients.If you are looking for a class action lawyer it is even simpler.
Every request for the approval of a class action is published in the register of class actions. You can filter the lawyer's name in this register and find out how many class actions he has filed and on what subjects. You can also find out the judgments in these cases through the Net Law website.
A good lawyer is a lawyer who also gives personal attention to the client
A phenomenon that cannot be ignored is that after the client has paid the attorney's fees, he has difficulty contacting the attorney, the attorney does not return to the client even if the client leaves messages, and sometimes the attorney also neglects the client's care. I guess you will agree with me that it is difficult to consider such a lawyer as a good lawyer or a recommended lawyer.
In order to avoid this type of situation, try to coordinate expectations with the lawyer you intend to hire, and check if he can meet your expectations. For example: a lawyer cannot be expected to be available for you 24/7 but it is certainly possible to conclude that the lawyer will get back to you within X days, at the latest via email or a phone call.
Remember, a lawyer is not a robot and you will certainly not be his only clients. Together However, the client's expectation to receive adequate service is certainly a reasonable expectation and the lawyers must strive to provide good service as well.
The best lawyer in Israel is the most expensive lawyer
This statement is incorrect. There is no doubt that for the services of a good lawyer you will pay more (and sometimes much more) compared to a less experienced lawyer. At the same time, it is important to understand that the amount of the attorney's fees is not an unequivocal indication of the attorney's quality or legal ability.
"The best lawyer in Israel" is a problematic statement in itself because you need to understand whether you are looking at the best civil lawyer in Israel, the best labor law lawyer in israel, the best criminal lawyer in Israel, the best class action lawyer in Israel, etc.
Furthermore, to the best of my knowledge, there is no index that determines who is the best lawyer in Israel, but there are different entities that check who are the leading lawyers or firms in their field.
A lawyer recommended by many people is probably also a good lawyer
There is no doubt that the experience of previous clients with the lawyer you intend to hire may be a good indication to check if it is a good lawyer. It is of course important to make sure that the recommendation refers to the same field of activity or issue that is relevant to you because, as I explained earlier, a good lawyer in one field is not necessarily good in another field.
Today it is very easy to check if any lawyer is a recommended lawyer. For example: if you type my name in Google you will get the following result:
If you click on the reviews you will reach this page:
You are welcome to scroll and read the reviews (and if you are one of my past clients or if you are a regular reader of the articles I publish, you are also welcome to leave a positive review).
Another option to check if any lawyer is a recommended lawyer is to read the reviews on the firm's Facebook page:
Naturally, if you have the opportunity to talk to the recommender in person – do so. In this way you can ask additional questions on issues that may not have been reflected in the written recommendation.
Hope this article helped you understand how to find a good lawyer and a recommended lawyer in Israel.
