More Productive Internet Lawyers Websites
Does your firm’s website have a form link for potential legal clients to send inquires through to your law firm,? If so, you may be wasting your, or your assistant’s, time!

I'll preface this by saying that many of the Internet legal client prospects you deal with in your career will likely be good, honest people. However, it seems the inquires generated through many legal web sites cause even the best, most honest, potential clients, to either intentionally, or unintentionally, waste your time.

As a professional in this industry, your time is the one thing you can't afford to waste. If you run out of money, you can always make more. If you run out of time, all the money in the world won't help you.

So there is a good argument to be made for the notion that time is much more valuable than money.

The impersonal nature of the Internet and ‘instant response’ culture promoted by it, can be detrimental to efficient lawyer time management.

If you have a popular legal web site, you will notice that a large percentage of the inquires requesting legal advice or opinion, can never be contacted by phone, or reply back to your emails after you have sent them their requested information.
Actually, with popular legal sites these time wasters can be a very serious problem. You’ll notice I said ‘can be’ in the preceding sentence. If you follow my suggestions below, the occurrence of this happening through your site will be drastically reduced or eliminated entirely.

Averaging over 100 unique visitors per day to my Houston legal directory http://www.houston-texas-lawyers-attorneys-directory.com alone, I know my suggestions really can benefit those of you who implement them. These are not theoretical ideas, but field tested and proven techniques.

#1. Show the current average hourly fees or case legal cost vs. settlement obtained for your clients.

This one step dramatically reduces the ’dreamer/spendthrift’ type of email. It also enhances your credibility to win major settlements.

#2. All inquiry forms on your site should be set up so that if vital information is omitted, the form will remind the visitor when they try to submit it that the fields need to filled in for the form to work.

What information you want is up to you. Many

Probate
A Florida homeowner asks how to avoid probate for her estate. She wants to leave her condo to her son but does not want him to pay probate costs. Can she set up a transfer on death deed so that her son avoids probate? Probate laws vary by state and so she should consult an estate attorney to better understand Florida probate laws. ￿
Estate Planning
A reader asks a question about estate planning. In this case, incomplete estate planning leads to some family members not receiving money after a house is sold. Thorough estate planning ensures that the people you want inherit your estate. Without estate planning, the laws of your state govern your estate when you die. ￿
1031 Exchange
A restaurant building owner asks about avoiding capital gains tax when using a 1031 exchange. You can minimize taxes depending on how your 1031 exchange is structured. Is a 1031 tax exchange right for you?￿
Apartment Finder
A reader asks about starting an apartment finder web site and whether she needs a real estate license. This apartment finder web site would allow landlords to post listings for about $20 per month. Ilyce suggests contacting in intellectual property attorney to fully understand what it takes to start an apartment finder web site.￿


times, personally, I do not require the phone number. This is because I feel that many may fear unwanted ‘sales’ calls. Plus, after all they are contacting me via the Internet vs. my toll-free phone number!

I do require the following basic information:
A. Full name
B. Address
C. Email address
D. Nature of case

Depending on the form, other information will be required. Keep in mind, these people know about you and are requesting your time. If they will NOT provide you their basic personal information, how serious can they really be?

Perhaps key to saving your valuable time, is my last suggestion:
Immediately upon receipt of an inquiry from your site, you or your assistant should reply with a request for some small bit of additional information. If you do not receive a timely reply to your inquiry, why invest any more time on this inquiry?

What should you ask for depends on the type of inquire. I ask for such information as:
When the situation occurred, full extent of damages/injury, and/or have they consulted any other lawyers?.

Proper time management is crucial to any successful business. Management of your Internet inquires will increase your productivity!

"Until you value yourself, you won't value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with It." -M Scott Peck

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Bob Schwartz runs 15 legal directory sites. Houston lawyers www.houston-texas-lawyers-attorneys-directory.com, Dallas lawyers www.dallas-fort-worth-texas-lawyers-attorneys-directory.com, Los Angeles lawyers www.la-orange-county-lawyers-attorney-directory.com, San Jose law www.san-jose-ca-lawyers-attorneys-directory.com