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| Americans Look to Ensure Job Protection |
| Alan Kopit, lawyers.com Legal Editor |
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Tough economic times and uncertainty about job stability appear to be increasing consumer demand for employment lawyers, an online survey from lawyers.com reveals.
One in ten consumers in search of a lawyer who visited lawyers.com, the most comprehensive and trustworthy online resource for finding a lawyer from LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell, said that employment law was the area of law that best matched their current legal needs.
Many Americans are extremely guarded of the jobs they have, and will take extra precautions to ensure their jobs are protected legally, observed attorney Alan Kopit, lawyers.com's legal editor. Finding another job can be so difficult that people will consult attorneys to see if they have legal recourse if they get laid off, or have some other problem with their job situation.
Working with an employment attorney is a very smart move if an individual has any questions about potential legal infractions involved with his or her termination or other on-the-job actions, Kopit continued. A qualified attorney can ensure appropriate legal action is taken to protect long-term financial stability if someone has been the victim of a wrongful termination.
The survey also reveals that family law tops the list of areas of law that best matches lawyers.com consumer visitors current needs. Twenty-six percent of survey participants seeking a lawyer cited that area.
Family law is a perennial "hot" legal area due the ongoing need for divorce attorneys, as well as a growing demand for attorneys who handle adoptions, said Kopit. Many, if not most, Americans find they need to consult a family law attorney at some point in their lives, and using internet resources like lawyers.com to research is a great place to start.
Other survey findings include that eight percent of lawyers.com's consumer visitors seeking a lawyer said that criminal law was the area that best matched their current needs. Other areas cited included wills, probate, trusts and estates (7%), personal injury (7%), bankruptcy (6%), real estate (5%) and medical malpractice (5%).
Alan Kopit is the legal editor of lawyers.com and partner at the Cleveland-based law firm Hahn Loeser & Parks LLP. He has contributed columns to lawyers.com, focusing on consumer and small business legal issues and his media appearances include MSNBC, CNBC, CNNfn, Bloomberg Television, WEWS-TV Cleveland (ABC), WKYC-TV Cleveland (NBC), WKBC-TV Houston (NBC), Bloomberg Radio, and legal contributor to NBC-TV's Today show. For more information about Alan Kopit, please see his biography.
LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell's lawyers.com commissioned Synovate to conduct an on-site survey from June 3 to September 3, 2003. The first phase of the survey was based on a very short randomized pop-up questionnaire issued to visitors of lawyers.com. A pop-up appeared to visitors of the lawyers.com home page. The first screen invited visitors to the questionnaire and explained its purpose. The next question elicited the primary reason each respondent was at the site. Those respondents who responded that they were seeking a lawyer using the lawyers.com search engine continued with the rest of the survey. A total of 2,873 identifying themselves as consumers seeking a lawyer (as opposed to members of the legal profession or business professionals) participated in the survey.
LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell's lawyers.com is the leading lawyer directory on the Web, providing access to more than 440,000 attorneys and law firms nationwide. More than one million searches per month are conducted at lawyers.com by consumers and business people in search of the right lawyer for their needs. |
