Depending on the situation you are in, hiring a lawyer may be one of the most important things you may do in your life. Having a good local Bay Area lawyer that knows and understands culture of the courts in your area is almost as important as having one with excellent experience.

If you are in the Bay Area and you need a lawyer then you should hire a lawyer local to the Bay Area. Think about it. A local Bay Area lawyer that specializes in the local court system will have more first hand knowledge about judges and prosecutors than a lawyer from a different place. Besides helping you win your case, whether criminal or civil, there are many reasons to hire a local Bay Area lawyer.

Five reasons To Hire A Local Bay Area Lawyer

1. A local Bay Area lawyer will know the different judges and prosecutors and have a better working relationship with them.
2. A lawyer from outside the Bay Area may run into problems with the idiosyncrasies of how the local court system works, possibly slowing down the process.
3. A local Bay Area lawyer will have a better understanding of the working culture within the courts themselves. That is if he or she is good they will know the secretaries and clerks and be on friendly terms with them. Secretaries and clerks are the gate keepers. If you can’t get past the gate keepers then you are dead in the water.
4. A local Bay Area lawyer will have access to the right type of support staff for your case. For instance if it is a personal injury case the local Bay Area lawyer will have access to the right doctors or local expert witnesses.
5. Often it is cheaper to hire a local Bay Area lawyer rather than a lawyer from out of town. This is not always true. But, cost is an issue to keep in mind.

Use A Local Bay Area Lawyer Unless

Unless the out of area lawyer is simply fantastic and floats on water it does not make sense why you would not hire a local Bay Area lawyer. There are only two reasons that I would hire an out of town lawyer over a local Bay Area lawyer. First, if it was a lot cheaper to hire the out of town lawyer and the case was not a major life changing legal case. Second, if the out of town lawyer had a tremendous amount of experience in the type of work that I needed done then I would hire him over the local lawyer. I simply cannot think of any other reason to hire a lawyer that was from out of town over a local Bay Area lawyer.