Get Atty No

As much as possible, ask friends, family, or colleagues for lawyer recommendations based on people they trust or have worked with in the past. If you're having trouble getting a personal recommendation, websites like Super Lawyers list the best attorneys by practice area, location, and reputation.

Go to www.wsba.org and on the left hand side is the "lawyer directory." Click that and you can search by name, city, bar number, phone number, etc. If you enter city or name, it will give you all contact information, bar number, practice area...

Go to www.wsba.org and on the left hand side is the "lawyer directory." Click that and you can search by name, city, bar number, phone number, etc. If you enter city or name, it will give you all contact information, bar number, practice area...

As much as possible, ask friends, family, or colleagues for lawyer recommendations based on people they trust or have worked with in the past. If you're having trouble getting a personal recommendation, websites like Super Lawyers list the best attorneys by practice area, location, and reputation.

For the public, the best way to confirm an attorney's license to practice law is by contacting the licensing or regulatory agency in that state that grants the bar license. In most states, the licensing or regulatory agency is managed by the state bar or the state bar association.

Visit RomingerLegal.com "State and Local Bar Association" service. Scroll through the list until you find either the state you live in or the state the lawyer is located in (if those two states are not the same). To practice law in a state, a lawyer has to become a member of the bar association for that state.

You can run an attorney search at databases such as Avvo and Martindale Hubbell, which provide information such as practice areas, location, disciplinary records, and lawyer reviews. You might also consult your local or state bar association's attorney directory, which is a list of lawyers in your area.

To find out whether an attorney has been disciplined, you must first determine the state or states in which an attorney is licensed, and then go to the Web site for the bar association for that state. The American Bar Association maintains an online listing of each state's lawyer disciplinary agency.

The state bar association will confirm your lawyer's licensing, which is tantamount to the lawyer's legitimacy. The state bar association also has plenty of information on any attorney discipline. Each state bar will have a disciplinary organization, where you can find information on lawyers' conduct.