Our Process

The consultation process has two steps: the telephone Intake Interview and the Consultation Meeting.

The Consultation

In some ways, the consultation process can be the most important part of a client’s case. Usually, during the initial phone call and meeting, people have important facts fresh on their minds, which can be critical for us in understanding what needs to be done. During these first steps, we collect a great deal of important information that can literally make or break a case.

When a Potential Client Becomes a Client

At the conclusion of the Consultation Meeting, the potential client is provided a proposed Attorney-Client Employment Agreement, which details the proposed terms of McNinch Law Firm’s potential representation of the client.

In most cases, once the proposed agreement is signed and the potential client’s payment is secured, the firm can begin work, and the person becomes a client of McNinch Law Firm, PLLC. Although everything discussed during the Intake Interview and Consultation Meeting are private, McNinch Law Firm, PLLC does not represent a person until the Attorney-Client Employment Agreement is signed and the potential client’s payment has been secured.

Confidentiality

A potential client’s communications with our firm are confidential. Everything a potential client tells us during the Intake Interview through the Consultation Meeting is secret unless those statements fall under an exception under the Mississippi Rules of Professional Responsibility. Those exceptions include situations where a lawyer believes disclosure is necessary “to prevent reasonably certain death or substantial bodily harm; . . . to prevent the client from committing a crime or fraud that is reasonably certain to result in substantial injury to the financial interest or property of another and in furtherance of which the client has used or is using the lawyer’s services; . . . [or] . . . to comply with other law or a court order.” See Mississippi Rule of Professional Conduct 1.6(b) We take privacy very seriously because we are required to, but also because we know it is extremely important to our clients, given the very personal nature of their cases.