Using the Internet to Find a Michigan DUI Attorney
The Internet has simplified and reduced the costs and process for attorneys to market themselves. Consequently, it’s not very hard to find a Michigan DUI attorney on the Internet. All you have to do is conduct a search engine request on Google, Yahoo, MSN or any other search engine for a Michigan drunk driving lawyer or Michigan drunk driving attorney or DUI lawyer or attorney, drunk driving law in Michigan, etc., and an endless list of DUI lawyer websites will appear at your disposal to research.
There are also paid advertisements that lawyers will purchase on different websites or by using pay per click advertisements such as through Google Adwords, and also websites that will link to a recommended DUI lawyer’s website. But be aware that because websites battle for popularity and for higher rankings on search engine requests, many webmasters have engaged in link farms or producing artificial links because of the belief that the more websites that link to you, the better your ranking position can increase in a Google search.
A common and typical website that you will come across on the Internet is the so-called free legal information website that will refer you to a local attorney. These websites are generally a collaboration of attorneys who pay for the website or create the website, themselves, for the sole purposes of gaining potential clients. It’s a marketing effort. For this reason, the contact forms will ask you to type in your zip code. The lawyers divide up territories, cities or states for potential clients that visit the website and inquire about legal services.
Finally, Martindale Hubble maintains a lawyer locator directory to find attorneys by location, area of practice and experience level.
There is nothing wrong with finding a Michigan DUI attorney by any of these methods. But each has drawbacks. Doing an Internet search, visiting many web sites of drunk driving lawyers, contacting each one, etc. is fine if you have time to do so. But if you or someone you know was recently arrested for operating while intoxicated or another DUI law violation, then it’s quite possible you just won’t have much time to do your due diligence. As a result, you may very well settle for the first drunk driving lawyer’s web site that appears in an Internet search or the first Internet advertisement you see. Again this leads to the same problem that occurs with finding drunk driving lawyers using the yellow pages, except in one regard — you’ll be able to visit attorney web sites and learn more about them. This is a benefit to researching DUI lawyers on the Internet. But if you end up not actually researching attorneys and just selecting the first one you see that “looks good,” then you will not know whether you have the best drunk driving lawyer representing you. Attorneys naturally will say good things about themselves in marketing efforts to gain more clients. Simply visiting a drunk driving lawyer’s web site will only expose you to the lawyer’s own subjective review and belief about his or her ability to represent you in the operating while intoxicated prosecution against you.
Regarding the lawyer referral web sites hidden within these free legal information sites, the big drawback is basically that you are going to be contacted by an attorney of whom you have little or no knowledge of. Of course, you can ask all the right questions, but more often than not, because of the need to retain a drunk driving lawyer as soon as possible, you may end up choosing a DUI lawyer who doesn’t have the experience, expertise (and other qualifications that we recommend your DUI lawyer have) that another might.
