Confirm the Consultation Price and Scope When Booking With a Chicago Firm
Some Chicago injury firms offer an initial conversation without charge, but the client should confirm the current terms directly when booking because this general information does not establish a particular firm's price or policy. Ask whether the meeting is free, how long it lasts, who participates, and whether document review or follow-up work costs extra. A conversation with an accident lawyer is not an engagement unless the applicable acceptance process is completed.
Verify the Meeting Terms Before Sending Detailed Information
Provide names needed for a conflict check and ask what information may be shared before that process is complete. Confirm the meeting channel, identity of participants, expected duration, cancellation terms, accessibility needs, document limit, and whether a written answer or second call is included.
Ask how the firm handles information from prospective clients and what boundaries apply before engagement. Avoid assuming every communication is confidential in every circumstance or that an intake employee can give a final legal opinion.
Distinguish Inquiry, Consultation, Investigation, and Representation
An inquiry usually supplies preliminary facts and checks fit. A consultation may explore the event, injury, possible actors, evidence, timing, and next questions. Investigation can require records, witnesses, research, or expert work beyond that conversation. Representation begins only through the applicable acceptance and engagement process.
A personal injury lawyer may need additional material, decline the matter, identify a conflict, recommend another discipline, or request a later decision. The client should not miss a notice or filing obligation while waiting for an on-the-spot answer that the firm never promised.
Bring a Compact Intake Packet and Five Booking Questions
Prepare a one-page chronology, party names, event report, photographs, medical dates, insurer contacts, work effects, and any document showing a deadline. Do not send irreplaceable originals unless instructed; use secure delivery and retain a copy of what was provided.
At booking, ask: Is there a charge? Who will attend? What should I send? When will I learn whether more review is needed? What written step creates representation? Also ask how long submitted material is retained and how an urgent deadline should be identified before the appointment. Those questions clarify the value and limits of the meeting without confusing a free consultation, if offered, with guaranteed acceptance, investigation, or outcome. At S&S Law, we help Chicago clients with consultation terms.