Attorney is of the utmost importance when anyone comes to Costa Rica to stay and live. If you plan to do a business, buy some real estate units or get a cell phone connection, the documents you require for such works can only be provided by an attorney. It can even take more than one attorney to provide services to you for work like selling or buying real estate and getting your residency. The reason behind getting an attorney is that it will be able to translate legal documents also it can explain the way law work here. In a Latin country Napoleonic legal system prevails. One thing is for sure is that you will need attorney for almost everything. You will need it for the things which you never thought would need an attorney in your home country. Without attorney you will not be able to make your way through the legal system here.
If you want to hire an attorney, than you must be a fluent Spanish speaker. But if you are not a bilingual, then choose an attorney who could speak both Spanish and English or your native language. Communication is the most important part as you will have to discuss things like formalities, documents and so much more with your attorney.
Sometimes, you might have to keep a regular check on the attorney. It is important as to make sure that he/she does the things that he/she has told you that he will take care of in time. Attorney here is not necessary to work always with same ethics like they do in your native land. A regular check is inevitable else, you may find yourself into problems. Another thing is, never assume what he claims he is doing that. You should always ask for the work that he/she tells has been done. Due to the general rule, the paperwork moves slow here, so your attorney should not be contributing to delays.
Choosing an attorney for you require a little effort from your side. While choosing an attorney for your work, you should always make sure that whenever you try to access him he is available most of the times. You need to take of care some points when you choose an attorney for you. Keep the attorney’s office and residence number, so that in case of emergency he could be accessed by you easily. If you try to reach your attorney but failing in that this shows the carelessness of your attorney. This is also a sign of his unprofessionalism. This also means that it’s high time to find some one else as an attorney for you. Attorneys might have specialized in some specific niche. It will be good to choose an attorney who specializes in the area where you want your legal work to be done.
While finding a good attorney you may ask your relatives, retirees, friends and other knowledgeable person. They can be of great help when you yourself don’t have any idea about a good attorney as even if they also don’t know, they can always recommend you the name of someone who has knowledge of attorneys. There are a huge lot of available candidates for choosing your attorney from. You may also contact your embassy and inquire about the recommended attorney. You may gain knowledge about his reputation, integrity and his ways of working. As there are a huge lot of attorneys, no wonder you will encounter many attorneys which will be dishonest and incapable. So rather than wasting your time and money at someone who doesn’t have knowledge or is incapable, it will be better for you to look around and choose the appropriate attorney after knowing about his reputation. Attorney will become an integral part of your life making it important for you to build a good working relationship. Some of you might have this pre-conceived notion that more the expensive, better will be its quality. You will find attorneys charging from you $50 to $200 per hour, but do not choose an attorney on the basis of his fees as expensive not always mean quality.
At Costa Rica it is very usual to hire attorneys for your legal work. The Costa Rican version of Bar Association will answer your queries about the legal fees. You can always seek the help of this organization for the matter of legal fees. They will tell you about the minimum legal fees for the transactions based on cost. Taking an example of the immigration services, their fees per person is typically $1000 and what attorney charges is the percentage of that. Bar Association provides you these costs. Your attorney can act on your behalf when you are unavailable or out of country due to any reason. You can do some paperwork which will give your attorney the power of attorney to do your legal affairs when you are not available.
There are two types of attorneys.
First is, General Power of attorney and second is the Special Power attorney.
General Power of attorney enables him to deal with all your personal or legal needs whereas Special Power of attorney is specially done for a particular act like purchasing property units or signing a mortgage document. It is advisable that you should do this thing only when you have complete faith and trust as you are giving him/her the power to act on your behalf thus requiring absolute trust. The attorney should be very trustworthy when dealing with such situations.