Legal services in Dominican Republic

This will be an interesting thread!

Legal services are a crap shoot.   There are lawyers and lawyers.

So  there are well qualified lawyers who do a good job. There are lawyers who have studied one day a week and after some period of time they are lawyers.  Some of those are also very good, continue to study and learn.

Some have no idea what they are really doing and will rob you and not look back.

Lawyers are bloody well everywhere!!!   I read somewhere we have more lawyers per capita  then anywhere. I find that easy to believe. Some scratch out a living and some are very successful. 

Make sure you understand who you are dealing with. Make sure you know their credentials and experiences.  Make sure you negotiate ALL charges UP FRONT. Fees ARE negotiable too !!!!!

Ask for references from other expats,  for  locals etc.

IF you ask a lawyer their area of expertise most will say EVERYTHING.  Whatever you want they are an expert at.  Well not really the case at all.  If its simple it wont matter, if its complicated and or expensive make sure they are actually experts.

Manage your expectations.  Understand that in many ways you will be driving your  case or process.  Do not expect lawyers to remember dates or that they need to do something., YOU Need to follow up, check in, nudge,  push them and sometimes scream at them. 

Still a bit of the wild wild west here in this regard!

Planner gives a good overview of the legal environment in Dominican Republic - we're experiencing it now as we're buying real estate.

Real estate law and process is very unique in DR. And even as a couple where one is fluent in Spanish and the other with good understanding of it and experienced in real estate, it's more reassuring having a lawyer who can speak your first language. You don't want mistakes being made on one of the most siginifcant financial transactions in your life due to "lost in translation issues."

We were advised to go with one of the larger firms in DR and warned "you'd pay more". For a standard real estate transaction, we were pleasantly shocked at how afforable the legal services were. For the price of what most people in the USA pay for cable/satellite TV packages for a year, we're getting highly professional, straight forward legal representation for a flat fee.

It's still very different than what we're used to (as expected - it's a different country) and trust me, everything that Planner said still applies.  Patience is required. Thing won't move as fast as you want. Follow-up and ask questions. And always ask again an again to confirm the process and next steps, even after it's explained in writing.

I really can't add to Planner's comments.  She is spot on.

Be very careful here and usually your best bet is s recommendation from an Expat that you know.  Be careful here as well as many expats here will take advantage of you and con you as well.  So make sure your Expat recommendation is from a reputable individual.

Bob K

Never hurts to interview more than one Lawyer or firm and compare.

One other note: higher price does not mean better service, often the opposite!

Having married into a large extended family here in Moca, my now sister-in-law in Canada referred me to her good friend who runs a well established law firm along with his sister. I might have had faster service going with some other lawyer such as ones recommened here by various folks, but perhaps not. Yes, you must follow up and judge them . While the price is very affordable,  I have used these folks for Residency processing, marriage processing (both civil and formal church), I sometimes wonder if my North American expectations regarding timings is too prevalent. So, I sit back, relax, pay my bills, keep learning Spanish and keep going to the little store (owned by a relative) and have a beer or two. In other words, do what others have said- be aware of things and keep nudging but throw away those time line expectations and relax......you

We used Jenny Familia in Cabarete for our home purchase. She came recommended and did and awesome job. She is very knowledgeable, honest, efficient and speaks English. Here is her contact: jenny@jennyfamilialegal.com

Kevin

Good to know. My attorney speaks 5 languages & has a great sense of humor. Having some good ones around is a good feeling for those in need. Thanks for the info.

Please look into Johan Confidente. He's the CEO of Oficina Confidente Cueto and is insightful on all aspects of taxes and visa. He gave me a lot of details about DR's goal of 10 million visitors a year and Condo investments.

You are responding to a thread that is 5 years old.

@planner Oh, my error. Can you offer a better place to submit this post? If not please delete. Thanks.

You can easily start your own thread honey from the main page. Then you will get responses.