When you reach out to a lawyer on social media for one help or the other or for legal advice, pay attention to dates, names, evidence and other vital facts. You will be doing yourself disservice by writing long and tiring epistle and stories without providing specific and necessary information.
For example, instead of simply stating that someone was arrested by the police, you should state that Mr. Akpan or Miss Tinuke was arrested on the 7th day of April, 2022 at his house at No. 1 Bolingo Street, Victoria Island, Lagos by a team of policemen led by DSP Abubakar over an alleged case of stealing and taken to Dantata Police Division in Lekki where he is currently detained. The phone number of the DPO of the station and that of the IPO is 07098888888.
Please come to our rescue. Thank you.

You can rephrase the above example in your own language but ensure that you avail the lawyer of the material facts. You should also provide additional details depending on the circumstances of the case.

With the above information, a lawyer already has the material facts to entertain your complaint. But when you leave out vital information, and expect that a lawyer who probably has many cases to attend to in his firm and dozens or multiple requests from people online seeking for one help or the other, will begin to ask you for dates, names and other facts that are already within your knowledge, which you should have provided from the outset, you may not always be so lucky to get the full attention that you crave.

This is particularly important if the services that you are seeking from the lawyer is one that you’re not going to pay for. Lawyers are not philanthropists.
The legal profession is not a free enterprise. The fact that some lawyers offer pro bono services when they can doesn’t mean that lawyers should work for free. The minimum that you owe a lawyer whose services you need pro bono is to present your case as factual as possible, and avoid putting the lawyer through avoidable stress.

The law belongs to the lawyer, but the facts will always belong to the client. Lawyers do not manufacture facts. It is the client’s duty to furnish the lawyer with material facts.

Is it wrong for a lawyer to seek clarification and more information when necessary? Certainly not. It is what lawyers do everyday. But when you just send random messages to a lawyer online that you’re not paying, and you leave out relevant facts, you may realize that time is a very important resource to lawyers.

I hope this recommendation will be useful to someone out there.
Do have a great weekend.

Inibehe Effiong

Don't just get mad,get a
Lawyer