How do I find the right lawyer?

More than 160,000 lawyers are admitted to practise in Germany, and every one of them may represent you in any legal matter. Even so, the right lawyer for you is only one of a few: they work in the area of law your problem belongs to, they have often handled cases like yours, they have an appointment before your deadline runs out, and they tell you in advance what the consultation will cost.

Until now, you had to work all this out yourself: guess whether a dismissal is employment law or contract law, compare profiles, read reviews, call and wait for a call back. With Rechtigo, you describe your case once in your own words. The platform takes care of the initial assessment, comparing lawyers and analysing reviews. This article explains what happens in detail and what you can base your decision on in the end.

1. You describe the case, Rechtigo assesses it

You don’t need to know which area of law your problem belongs to. You describe what happened, as you would tell a friend, and upload the documents: the notice of dismissal, the official notice, the contract, the expert report. Rechtigo reads the documents, adds details such as the date of service to the case and assigns the matter to an area of law, such as employment law, tenancy law, traffic law or family law. You also get a short summary of how your case has been understood.

This initial assessment is a pre-sorting, not legal advice. It ensures that you are only shown lawyers who work in this area, and that the lawyer already knows your case before you speak to them for the first time. The legal review is carried out by the lawyer.

2. The case roadmap: straight after you describe your case

Even before you choose a lawyer, Rechtigo shows you the case roadmap for your area of law. It contains a deadline traffic light, a typical cost range, a note on whether legal expenses insurance usually covers such cases, and the next three steps. For a dismissal, for example, the light is red, because an action for unfair dismissal generally has to be filed within three weeks of receipt. For a service charge statement it is amber, because objections are usually possible for twelve months.

The roadmap is free and gives general guidance with typical values. The deadlines and costs in your specific case are reviewed bindingly by the lawyer.

3. Rechtigo suggests suitable lawyers

Now you see the suggestions: only verified lawyers whose admission has been checked, who work in the identified area of law, accept new mandates and are available to you, either by video nationwide or in person at your location. The order is based on three things: how well the lawyer’s profile fits your case, how clients rated them after real appointments, and when their next available appointment is.

The result is shown on each suggestion as a percentage “Match”. Below it, under “Why this lawyer?”, you see the reasons in plain language, for example “Certified specialist in employment law”, “4.8 stars from 23 real appointments”, “Available appointment within 48 hours” or “Replies in 2 hours on average”. So you don’t have to compare twenty profiles yourself; you see why a lawyer is being suggested for exactly your case, and you can sort the suggestions by rating instead if you prefer.

This order cannot be bought. Lawyers pay Rechtigo a fixed monthly fee and no commission per case, and they cannot buy a better place in the suggestions. Sponsored profiles only appear in the general lawyer search, in a separate section there and always labelled “Sponsored”; they do not appear in the suggestions for your case.

4. Specialist lawyer titles: verified, not claimed

A specialist lawyer title (Fachanwalt) is the most reliable indicator of experience in an area. There are 24 specialist fields, for example employment law, family law, traffic law, tenancy and condominium law or criminal law. The regional bar association only awards the title if the lawyer has demonstrated special knowledge and handled a set number of cases in that area. After that, they must undertake further training every year or lose the title.

Rechtigo only displays a specialist lawyer title once it has been checked against the official nationwide lawyer directory (Bundesweites Amtliches Anwaltsverzeichnis). In the profile, you can recognise it by the dark marker. Practice focus areas and areas of interest, by contrast, are stated by the lawyer themselves, without being checked by the bar association. They show what the lawyer actually works on and are therefore included in the match with your case, but are labelled as self-declared.

5. Reviews: Rechtigo analyses them for you

On Rechtigo, only clients who have actually attended an appointment with this lawyer via the platform can leave a review. This rules out bought or fake reviews, and a lawyer cannot have a review removed in exchange for payment. The average and number of these reviews feed into the order of the suggestions. So you don’t have to work through reviews to know how satisfied other clients were; that is already built into the suggestion.

If you still want to read them, the content matters more than the stars: did the lawyer explain things clearly, were they reachable, did they move the case forward? A single bad review says little, because a lost case is not always the lawyer’s fault. Several similar comments about poor availability, on the other hand, are a warning sign.

6. Availability: open appointments instead of a call-back list

Many legal problems have deadlines, and a lawyer who only has time in four weeks is no help to you then. On Rechtigo, you see the next available appointment on each suggestion, for example “Next appointment: Thu 31 Oct, 14:00”, and whether the lawyer offers video consultations. If you are in a hurry, filter for lawyers with an appointment within 48 hours. The lawyer’s response time to enquiries is also measured and displayed. You book the appointment directly, including in the evening or at the weekend, and receive the confirmation by e-mail.

7. Costs: visible before you book

Booking via Rechtigo is free for you. You simply store a payment method in case you cancel a confirmed appointment less than 24 hours beforehand or don’t show up; in that case a no-show fee of €10 is charged. You agree the lawyer’s fee with them. For an initial consultation, a lawyer may charge consumers no more than €190 plus VAT; many lawyers on Rechtigo already show their price for the initial consultation on their lawyer card before you book. If you have legal expenses insurance, enter it when you describe your case; the lawyer sees it before the appointment and makes the coverage request for you.

Your decision

Rechtigo makes the pre-selection; the decision stays with you. Here is what you can go by:

• Does the reasoning under “Why this lawyer?” match what matters to you, for example a specialist lawyer title or experience with cases like yours?
• Is the next available appointment early enough for the deadline shown by the traffic light in the case roadmap?
• Would you like to talk by video or in person, and does the lawyer offer that?
• Is the price for the first consultation stated, and does it work for you?

Once you have booked, your case with its description and documents is already with the lawyer. So the first conversation doesn’t start with the question of what actually happened, but with your questions.

This article provides general information and does not replace advice on individual cases.

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