Practice note
What to bring to a first consultation
A short list. Bringing the documents to the first meeting usually saves a second one.
A first consultation is most useful when the lawyer can read the documents rather than hear a description of them. The following covers most matters.
Documents
- Any contract, agreement or written terms, including drafts that were never signed.
- Letters, notices and messages exchanged with the other side, in the order they were sent.
- Proof of payment: bank transfers, mobile money records, receipts.
- Court papers, if proceedings have started, including anything served on you.
- Title deeds, registration certificates or licences relevant to the matter.
- Identification documents for the person or company instructing us.
A timeline
One page, in date order, of what happened and when. It does not need to be formal. It is the single most useful thing a client brings, because it tells us where the documents stop and memory begins.
Your objective
Be direct about what you want: payment, the property, the contract ended, the case closed, or simply an assessment of exposure. The route depends on it. A claim worth pursuing to judgment is not always the claim that gets the client paid fastest.
Deadlines
Tell us immediately if anything has a date on it — a hearing, a notice period, a filing deadline, a demand with a stated expiry. Deadlines change the order in which work is done.
Consultations are confidential. That applies whether or not the firm is instructed afterwards.
Published 1 June 2026. General information on Somali law, not legal advice on any particular matter.