An hour is enough to get a real answer, but only if you arrive with the papers in order. Here is the short list we wish everybody brought.
People arrive at a first meeting worried that they do not know enough about the law. That is not the problem. The problem is almost always that the facts arrive in pieces, and we spend forty of the sixty minutes assembling them instead of answering the question.
So here is what to bring, in the order it helps.
First, a timeline on one page. Dates down the left, one line each, in the order things happened. When was the agreement made, when did the money move, when did the letter arrive, when did you reply. It does not need to be neat. A timeline turns three carrier bags of paper into a case in about four minutes, and it is the single most useful thing a client has ever handed us.
Second, the documents that the timeline mentions. The contract, the letter of termination, the transfer slip, the message where somebody agreed to something. Copies are fine and copies are better, because we will write on them. If a message thread matters, bring a screenshot with the dates showing rather than a summary of what was said.
Third, the names. Who is the other side, exactly: the person, or a company, and if a company then which one. A claim against the wrong legal person is a month lost, and we cannot tell the difference between a trading name and a registered company from the outside.
Fourth, what you want. This sounds obvious and it is the question most people have not answered. Do you want the money, the flat, the job back, an apology, or for the whole thing to be over by Ramadan. The best outcome in law is often not the best outcome for the person paying for it, and we can only aim at a target you have named.
Fifth, your own honest account of the weak part. Every matter has one. Being told about it in the first hour by our own client is worth several days of work later, and being told about it by the other side in a hearing is worth nothing at all.
What you do not need to bring is a view about which law applies, a printout from a foreign website, or an apology for taking up the hour. The hour is what we do.
One last thing. If you have a deadline, say so when you make the appointment rather than when you arrive. A filing date changes what we do first, and sometimes it changes which day we can see you.
