> generally there is a cost For a lot of small-claims style things, lawyers will give you 15-30 minute consultations for free (YMMV on how useful these are, by

> generally there is a cost For a lot of small-claims style things, lawyers will give you 15-30 minute consultations for free (YMMV on how useful these are, by nature its often the lawyer giving you a bunch of information you may already have, will only a couple of minutes for actual questions that they may not be ready to answer), even if you don't have a preexisting relationship. I've seen this a lot in tenancy cases, where basically they filter out "bad landlord withholding rent" small claims style cases from "bad landlord doing illegal renovations or owner-move in evictions" that can be larger and more complicated, and want you to hire them for the second, but will give you some time for the first, in hopes that you remember that help when you run into the second case.