Finding a good lawyer in Austria

As a foreigner it can be a daunting task to find a good lawyer when you do not have yet the proper contacts to point you in the right direction.

In my case, as I have written in a previous post, my first lawyer was dishonest and only interested in money. When I eventually fired her, i decided to go back to the "Beratungsstelle für Frauen" for advice. They directed me to two main lawyers who work majorly to help women in situations such as mine. The recommendations I got were:

1. Dr. Helene Klaar - Prinz Eugen-Straße 34, 1040 Wien.
Tel : 015050462
E-mail: office@ra-klaar-marschall.at
(A tough, self proclaimed feminist, very well known in Austria for advocating women's rights)

2. Dr. Christine Kolbitsch - Taborstraße 10, 1020 Wien.
Website: www.vana.cc
Tel: 01214771030
E-mail: kolbitsch@vana.cc
( A tough lawyer as well fighting for women, and my current law firm)

I chose Dr. Kolbitsch's law firm for the simple reason that I got an appointment much faster at her law firm and was very impressed at how the lawyer dissected my case in a few minutes. The lawyer I speak of in this case is Mag. Sonja Aziz, whom I find absolutely brilliant, and possesses
a very high sense of deductive reasoning.

Besides the obvious advantage of fighting for women's rights, I also found it a major advantage that Dr. Kolbitsch's law firm generally doesn't charge the women recommended via the Beratungsstelle any fees for phone calls made to the court or with the client. It doesn't sound like much, but it is when you consider that you normally pay phone charges to the lawyer by the minute. I have also found it to be in a sense therapeutic when I can call my lawyer to discuss any developments in the case, and basically pour my heart out to the one person who understands what I am going through just about as much as I do.

On reading my case files, Mag Aziz quickly deducted that my problem was that I had been making several small irrelevant arguments in my case when the main argument was obviously a breakdown in communication, which is the one main reason, besides violence and drug addiction, that child custody can be awarded to one parent in Austria. Our first strategy, therefore, would be to put all the arguments together and direct them into one cohesive appeal showing inability of effective communication, stemming from him, as the reason I was seeking sole custody. The 13 page document that was the result of this effort looked like it just might work.