Ask if the lawyer will personally take care of your case. In some offices, junior attorneys, paralegals, or little trained assistants take over after a case is started and you may never see or hear from the lawyer personally again. It is not wrong for another person to take care of your case, but you may want to know about before you start. A lawyer's office should be able to give you the status or what the next step is in your case when you ask. Since it takes valuable time to answer your status questions, do not ask too often.
Some offices accept only written status requests.
If a lawyer has sent a letter or filed a paper for you, the lawyer should be able to show you a copy of the letter or a receipt for the paper. If the lawyer cannot show this to you and cannot explain why there is no receipt, it may be a sign of a disorganized office or that the paper was not filed. Make sure the person in charge of the office is a lawyer. Notaries, consultants, or others who are not licensed as a lawyer will sometimes pretend to be a lawyer. If you are in the office, look for the lawyer's certificate on the wall.