Posted by david on August 30, 2003 at 18:04:23:
Go to the following website for the Kern County Bar Association:
http://www.kernbar.org/
When you get this site, hit attorney listings and when the next page comes up, type in real estate next to practice area. You will get a list of lawyers who claim to handle real estate matters. Copy these names and now pull up the following:
This is the web site for the State Bar of California (all California licensed lawyers must be a member of the State Bar). When the home page comes up, look on the right hand side for attorney check. Hit this and when the next page comes up type in each of the lawyer’s names. You will then get the schools the lawyer went to, how long he has been a member of the CA bar and any disciplinary problems.
After you narrow your list, call several of the lawyers and try to do a brief interview. You are looking for the lawyer’s experience in the area of real estate law where you have a question (ie., you probably don’t want an unlawful detainer specialist for advice in how to handle a 1031 exchange), his or her rates for doing the work you want done, a ballpark estimate of the total cost, client references (many lawyers will not give them due to attorney-client confidentiality) and whether you think you can work with the attorney (go on your gut -if you are being talked down to or get evasive answers, move on to someone else).
Good luck.