Practice Pointers: How to Help Your Foreclosure Defense Attorney Help You

As a foreclosure defense attorney, I’m in the business of helping struggling homeowners save their homes.  Potential clients who are facing home foreclosure often ask me, “What can I do to help my case?”

The best way to help your attorney with your case is the preparation you do before you meet with an attorney.  Here are some things I find that clients can do to help me do my job better (and, save them less money in legal fees).  These tips are geared towards foreclosure defense but also apply to most other areas of law:

  • Create a Timeline:  Most foreclosure cases (and many other areas of law) are fact intensive, and its a huge help for a client to have a timeline of the case, from beginning to end.
  • Keep Copies of Everything:  Having ready access to the important papers in your case save incredible time for your attorney.  Keep copies of everything.  With that in mind . . .
  • Stay Organized:  Find a way to organize your materials. I’m a huge believer in going “paperless” by scanning all my documents and then storing them into easy-to-find folders on my computer. Services like Google Drive and Dropbox are great for this. Being able to provide your attorney with an organized file of your paperwork makes everyone’s life much easier.
  • Create a “cast of characters:  Make a list of every person who has anything to do with your case (or knows something about it).  Include as much information about each person you know. Not only will this help your lawyer better prepare your case, it helps your lawyer determine if he or she has a conflict in taking your case.