How quickly can I get an appointment with a lawyer?

If you need a lawyer, you usually need one soon. A letter is on the table, a deadline is running, and finding an appointment is stressful. This article shows what the waiting time depends on, which deadlines allow no delay and how to get an appointment on Rechtigo within days rather than weeks.

What the waiting time depends on

How quickly you get an appointment depends on three things: the area of law, the region and how you make your enquiry. In areas in high demand, such as employment law or family law, experienced lawyers are often booked up weeks in advance. In the countryside there is less choice than in big cities. And if you phone, you often only reach voicemail or end up on a call-back list, without knowing whether the lawyer even takes cases like yours.

On top of that, before taking on a case, a lawyer has to check whether they are allowed to represent you at all. If they already represent the opposing party, they have to decline. This check requires them to know the names of those involved, and it takes time if they only ask for them in the conversation.

These deadlines allow no delay

In some cases, timing is everything. The most important deadlines:

• Dismissal: you must file a claim with the employment tribunal within three weeks of receiving a notice of dismissal. After that, the dismissal is deemed effective, even if it wasn’t.
• Fine notice: objection within two weeks of service, otherwise the notice becomes final.
• Penalty order: objection within two weeks of service.
• Official notice from an authority: objection or legal action usually within one month of notification, for example with the job centre, the pension insurance fund or the tax office.
• Court payment order: objection within two weeks of service.
• Service charge statement: objections must be raised within twelve months of receipt.

On Rechtigo, you don’t have to keep these deadlines in your head. As soon as you have described your case, the case roadmap shows the deadline traffic light for your area of law: red for a dismissal or a fine notice, amber in tenancy law, for example. If you upload an official notice, Rechtigo also reads the date of service. If the light is not green, you can switch on the deadline guard: you enter the expiry date from your letter and are reminded by e-mail seven days, three days and one day beforehand. The deadline in your specific case is reviewed bindingly by the lawyer.

How to get an appointment quickly on Rechtigo

• Available appointments are shown on every suggestion. After describing your case, you see suitable lawyers with their next available appointment, for example “Next appointment: Fri 1 Nov, 10:00”. Lawyers who still have time today are labelled “Available now – can talk today”.
• “Appointment within 48 hours” filter. If it’s urgent, hide all lawyers who don’t have time within two days.
• Video widens the choice. Lawyers with “Video appointment available” advise nationwide. So you don’t depend on the diaries in your own city.
• Book instead of calling. You book the appointment directly, including in the evening or at the weekend, and receive the confirmation by e-mail as well as a reminder 24 hours beforehand. Booking is free.
• The lawyer already knows the case. Your description, documents and the names of those involved are in the case file. The lawyer can carry out the conflict check before the appointment and doesn’t need to spend time in the conversation taking down the facts.

If you would rather send a request

Instead of booking straight away, you can also send a lawyer a case request. You set the maximum time you want to wait for a reply: 24 hours, 48 hours or three days. If the lawyer doesn’t reply by then, Rechtigo forwards the request – but only if you chose this beforehand – to a partner lawyer of that lawyer or to the next suitable lawyer. Otherwise you are informed and decide for yourself. Lawyers’ response times are measured and feed into the order of the suggestions; lawyers who reply quickly are suggested more often.

If it’s really urgent

In the event of an arrest, a house search or an acute accident, every hour counts. Then a call back is more important than an appointment next week. For such cases, Rechtigo has the emergency service: you leave a phone number on which you can be reached now and a brief note of what it’s about. The registered on-call lawyers are alerted, and whoever takes on the case calls you back. Until then, three rules apply: make no statement on the matter without a defence lawyer, sign nothing, keep all letters. If there is a danger to life or an acute threat, dial 110 or 112.

What you can do while you wait

Even if the appointment is a few days away, there are things you can do: upload all documents to your case file, including any that occur to you later; you will see there that the file has arrived and your lawyer has been notified. Write down what happened with dates and keep envelopes with postmarks. Check whether you have legal expenses insurance and enter it in your case. Don’t respond to deadlines without consulting your lawyer, but don’t let them pass either: if a deadline runs out before the appointment, write to the lawyer via the case file so they can arrange what’s most urgent in advance.

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

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