What to Bring to Your First Legal Consultation (By Case Type)

Most first consultations underdeliver because the client spends the hour explaining and the lawyer spends it asking for documents that are at home. Half an hour of preparation converts that into a meeting where you leave knowing where you stand.

Bring these to any consultation

1. Your CNIC, and NICOP if you live abroad.
2. A written chronology - what happened, in date order, on one page.
3. Every document you hold relating to the matter.
4. Copies as well as originals, so you can leave copies behind.
5. Names and roles of everyone involved, with contact details.
6. Any notice, summons or order you have received, with its date.
7. A list of your questions, written down.
8. What outcome you actually want.

Point two does more than anything else on this list. A one-page dated chronology lets a lawyer see the shape of the matter in two minutes and spend the rest of the hour on advice. Write it before you come, even roughly - clients who do this consistently get more out of the same appointment.

Family matters

The nikah nama is the foundational document in almost every family matter and the one most often left at a parent's house. Bring it, and if it is lost, say so at the outset - see recovering a lost nikah nama.

Property matters

• Title documents - sale deed, allotment letter, transfer letter.
• The latest record extract, obtained yourself where possible.
• Mutation entries and the chain of transfers.
• Any power of attorney relied on by anyone.
• Society or authority documents and any NOC.
• Payment records - receipts, bank transfers, cheques.
• Photographs of the property and any construction.
• Succession documents where it came by inheritance.

Bring the payment trail, not just the title documents. In disputed property matters, what you actually paid and how you paid it is frequently more probative than the paperwork the other side produced - and it is the part clients most often assume is irrelevant.

Employment matters

• Appointment letter and any contract.
• Employee handbook or policies if you have them.
• Payslips for the relevant period.
• Termination or show-cause letter.
• Performance records, appraisals, warnings.
• Correspondence with HR or management.
• EOBI and social security details if relevant.
• Service certificate if issued.

See termination of employment. If you were never given an appointment letter, that is itself a relevant fact - bring whatever evidences the employment instead.

Commercial and contract matters

1. The contract, signed, with all schedules and annexures.
2. Purchase orders, invoices and delivery notes.
3. The running account or ledger between the parties.
4. Correspondence - including messages, which often matter most.
5. Any notice served or received.
6. Company documents where an entity is involved.
7. Evidence of the loss you say you suffered.

Bring the messages. Pakistani commercial disputes are frequently decided on the parties' own contemporaneous WhatsApp exchanges, and clients routinely leave them out because they seem informal. Export the relevant thread rather than bringing a phone to scroll through.

Criminal and cheque matters

• FIR copy if registered, or the notice received.
• Any bail order or court document.
• The underlying agreement where the matter is commercial in origin.
• Payment records and receipts.
• The cheque and return memo in a 489-F matter.
• Correspondence with the complainant or accused.
• Names of witnesses.

Come quickly in criminal matters rather than assembling a perfect file - the timing of advice matters more than completeness. See defending a cheque bounce case.

Tax and regulatory matters

• The notice, in full, with its date and the provision cited.
• The return for the year concerned.
• Bank statements for the period.
• Supporting records for anything queried.
• Evidence for non-taxable receipts - inheritance, gifts, agricultural income.
• Your IRIS login position - who has access.
• Any earlier correspondence with FBR.

Bring the deadline to the lawyer's attention first, before anything else. Tax and regulatory notices carry short response windows, and the single most useful thing a first consultation can do is make sure the deadline is not missed while the file is being assembled - see FBR audit notices.

If the consultation is remote

Overseas clients and those outside the major cities increasingly take a first consultation by video or phone. The preparation is the same but the logistics differ.

1. Send the documents in advance, scanned and named clearly, at least a day before.
2. Send the chronology first - it lets the lawyer read the file in order.
3. Scan properly - full pages, readable, not photographs at an angle.
4. Number the documents and reference them in the chronology.
5. Flag any deadline in the covering message, not buried in an attachment.
6. Confirm the time zone explicitly when booking.
7. Have originals to hand during the call in case something needs checking.

A remote consultation with documents sent in advance is frequently more productive than an in-person one where everything is produced from a bag as the conversation goes along.

Ask at the end for a short written note of the advice and the next steps. It costs the lawyer little, it protects you against misremembering a phone conversation, and it is the natural starting point for the engagement letter if you decide to instruct - see working with a lawyer from abroad.

What to ask in the meeting

1. What are my realistic options, and what would you recommend?
2. What are the weaknesses in my position?
3. What will it cost, itemised, and how is it structured?
4. How long, realistically, and what is outside your control?
5. Who will do the work and who will appear?
6. What do you need from me next, and by when?
7. What happens if I do nothing?

Question two is the most valuable and the least asked. A lawyer who can immediately identify the difficulties in your case has thought about it; one who says there are none has not - see red flags when hiring a lawyer.

Frequently asked questions