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You briefly set out the subject of your request, by telephone or in writing. The firm checks for conflicts of interest, then tells you whether it is able to act and within what timescale. This step is not charged for. Legal analysis of your situation is by contrast a chargeable service: you are told where the line lies before it is crossed.

For both, but never in the same dispute nor for parties whose interests intersect. The conflicts check covers every matter, open and closed, and related parties. It precedes any first meeting.

Yes, and it does. A conflict of interest, even a potential one, requires it. So does an area the firm does not practise, or a deadline it cannot meet: you are then referred to another practitioner, with no consideration of any kind.

A written fee agreement is signed before any work begins. It states the basis of calculation, an estimate of the expected volume, and how you are informed if that estimate is to be exceeded. The four possible bases are described on the fees page.

Correspondence between a lawyer and their client is covered by professional secrecy, including before any matter is opened. That secrecy is a matter of public policy: the firm cannot be released from it, even by you.

You may refer the matter to the President of the Val-d'Oise Bar. If you are a consumer, you may also refer it, free of charge, to the mediator for consumer disputes of the legal profession, whose details appear in the legal notice.