3 easy ways to spot the best family lawyer in Quebec (full proof)

You are looking for a family lawyer in Quebec?

You’ve spoken to a few and remain undecided who to choose?

Wondering how you can easily spot which one is the best one?

In this post, that’s what we will discuss.

3 easy ways to identify who is the best family lawyer in Quebec.

Want to know more?

Great, read on.

Who are the family lawyers in Quebec?

The Quebec family attorneys are legal practitioners who have studied civil law and have the skills and abilities to interpret family related legal statues and court decisions, or jurisprudence, with the goal of applying such rules of law to your case.

In the Province of Quebec, we have a hybrid legal system whereby all private relationships, such as family related matters, wills, contracts, business dealings, are governed by the Civil Code of Quebec whereas all citizen relationships with the governmental body is governed by the common law legal system.

The Civil Code of Quebec and the civil legal system is an inheritance of our French ancestors who had established themselves in Canada hundreds of years ago and the British common law system is similarly a legacy left over by the British conquering of the French.

Considering we had to operate within two great legal systems, the Quebec family law has evolved to leverage both the Civil Code of Quebec as its basis but we also have an important common law influence as case law, or jurisprudence, plays an important role to influence a judge to interpret the applicable statues.

Thus, family lawyers in Quebec are lawyers operating primarily under the civil legal system influenced by the French and will also use their common law weapon as an important arsenal to try their cases in Court.

How can you tell a good family lawyer from a bad one?

Quite frankly, judging who is a great lawyer and who is a bad one is very subjective.

My perception of a good family lawyer may not be the same as your perception of a good lawyer.

However, in our view, there are a few objective and universal factors that can help us determine who is a good lawyer as opposed to one who may not do the job.

Let’s look at what we typically aspire to find when looking for a lawyer. Again, this is a subjective list so you may agree with some and disagree with other elements.

We want a great family lawyer to:

• Accurately tell you about your rights;
• Guide you in dealing with your obligations;
• Fight as hard as he or she can for your best interest;
• Be available to give your advice and guidance by phone or email;
• Understand your challenges deeply to convey that to the judge;
• Have lots of experience in dealing with cases like yours;
• Be prepared and battle-ready at all time;
• Be clear as to what he or she needs from you;
• Only render the right amount of legal services to limit your costs;
• Don’t steer you in the wrong direction so you pay tons to get yourself out of the hole;
• Be fair in his pricing and charge competitive rates;
• Offer you flexibility on payment terms; and,
• Be a super nice person so you enjoy working with him or her!

This is a non-exhaustive list of what you may expect from your family lawyer in Quebec. There may be other points or there may be too many here, that’s up to you to define what’s right for you.

Now, for the million-dollar question…

Can you find a family lawyer in Quebec who can offer you all of the above characteristics?

Humm…

Although we have a great esteem for our fellow family lawyers in Quebec, we are not sure that a client could potentially find, in the same person, all of the ideal characteristics.

Just like anything you buy, you will need to determine what’s your baseline requirement and then make concessions.

For example, if you need a lawyer and your only baseline requirement is that they be fairly priced, then, you will evidently look for that family lawyer in Quebec who offers you the best rate but then you must acknowledge that you may or may not get the greatest quality or the most responsive and strategic lawyer in town.

If legal competence and strategy is a key element for you, then, you’ll need to make concessions are accepting to pay more as those family lawyers will come with a price tag accordingly.

Are there however any objective and universal ways that you can tell if a lawyer is good or bad?

In our view, we think so.

First way to tell you are dealing with a great family lawyer

In our perspective, the first important sign that you are dealing with a great family lawyer is one that has the ability to hear your story, fully understand the problem you are facing and triage through all the facts to identify what’s critical to achieve your legal goals.

One important characteristic of a great lawyer is the one who is capable of cutting to the chase.

In a family dispute, divorce or separation, the separating couple is going through an emotional turmoil, is potentially highly stressed out and is undergoing a structural change in their lives.

The great family lawyer is able to keep focus on what matters to avoid wasting your time, making a mountain out of a mole and turning your file from potentially a simple case to a complex web of entanglements.

Having said that, with a family lawyer who is able to stay laser focused on the relevant facts to support your legal case, you will most certainly be in much better legal position.

If the right facts are on your side, then you mitigate your legal risk and exposure.

Having said that, when you speak to your family lawyer for the first time either on the phone or during a consultation, you should carefully assess how this lawyer is guiding the conversation and navigating the facts.

If you sense that the lawyer is just taking notes and has little valuable legal comments or feedback, or seems unable to quickly assess what is the legal matter in dispute, then you should ask more questions and get to know the lawyer’s background and experience.

Second way to tell if you are dealing with the best family lawyer in Quebec

The second tip to spot if you are dealing with an amazing family lawyer is to assess how well he or she expresses himself and how articulate the person may be.

Lawyers must be great orators.

In other words, a great family lawyer will be communicating with many critical parties and stakeholders.

To start with, being articulate and equipped with great communication skills, your family lawyer will be able to easily and very simply explain your legal case to you.

You do not want to be lost in your lawyer’s explanations so you are no longer in a position to meaningfully provide him or her with your observations, feedback and mandate.

In addition, your lawyer will be dealing with the opposing counsel and must be able to deal with an adversary who may have conflicting interest.

A great family lawyer will be able to properly establish the rules of engagement, easily steer the negotiations, adjust his or her communication style to the personality of the opposing counsel or party so to maximize gains for your case.

The communication skills will be at its peak of important when your family lawyer is in Court and pleading your case to a judge.

A great family lawyer will be able to be brief and concise when presenting your case to the judge.

The rule of thumb is to be short and sweet.

Therefore, your great family lawyer will be able to hit the nail on the head when presenting your case to the judge by remaining to the point, presenting strong or weak arguments with conviction and speak with persuasion.

Your family lawyer’s communication skills is therefore a critical factor in the potential overall success of your case.

So what is our third and last tip to detect that you are dealing with an amazing family law attorney?

Third tip to see if you have found an amazing family lawyer in Quebec

We usually take this for granted and don’t think about this but your lawyer’s ability to handle stress and anger is critical to the overall success of your case.

Think about it.

If you had an angry lawyer who would be fighting unreasonably with the other party, disputing with the judge or even show anger when dealing with you, you are sure to see your case success rate dwindle.

Lawyers, just like any other professionals, to succeed in their craft must master the baseline traits to be great.

So our last tip is to assess your lawyer’s ability to remain calm and cool when the going gets tough.

We are of the view that a great lawyer is able to control his or her emotions, or anger, in any difficult circumstance so to avoid putting fuel on the fire.

When you are dealing with a lawyer who is calm and collected, you will naturally be drawn to his or her arguments and will be persuaded by this person.

As a result, our suggestion is for you to attempt to identify these traits in the lawyer that you may be selecting.

Conclusion: the greatest family lawyer in Quebec

As you can see from our 3 critical tips to assess whether or not you are dealing with the best and greatest family lawyer is pretty straightforward, but many do not consider that in their decision.

If you look at our 3 tips holistically, you will see that the great family lawyer will be a person:

1. who can quickly identify the relevant facts of your case so to be laser focused on the legal setup of your file;
2. will have amazing communication skills to be able to speak with eloquence and in an articulate fashion to persuade the opposing party’s lawyer or a judge to adopt his or her position, and;
3. will be calm, cool and collected at all times, will not have unwanted emotions or anger derail his or her legal plan.

There you have it.

Our top 3 tips to find that amazing family lawyer.

Remember, you may have your own views on what may be a great lawyer and by no means are we suggesting that our views above represent the best or most important view.

At FamilyLawyer.Zone, we wish to achieve the best both professionally and for our clients.

As a result, we are fully aware that there are skills and abilities beyond legal knowledge and technical know-how that adds value to your case and can help deliver results.

We want to bring awareness to you that you should take into account the lawyer’s skills as a person in addition to their technical and legal knowledge.

FamilyLawyer.Zone is an innovative law firm leveraging technology, human experience and knowledge and great skills to provide you with the top tier talent and case representation at competitive rates.

We invite you to read our article titled 3 absolutely critical reasons why we should act as your family lawyer in Montreal (read now) to know why our firm and lawyers should be hired to represent you in your family law case.

With us, you get top legal services, period.

If you like to read more about our online service packages or our legal representation services, go to familylawyer.zone. Also, feel free to e-mail us at for any questions, comments, feedback at info@familylawyer.zone.  Contact us now!

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