I'm getting to the point with my (indie) game at which it's time to seek out a lawyer, I feel. (For a variety of purposes.) However, I'm honestly not sure of how to go about choosing one. Thus my central question: how does one go about choosing a lawyer(/legal firm)?

For example, is it important that they specialise in game-dev? Is it important that they be in my country? (To be clear, I'm not in America; I'm in South Africa.) That they be nearby me?

What red-flags are there, and what good signs?

(Finding lawyers to consider isn't proving that hard--there's a nice website that allows one to search lawyers in my country. I'm just not sure of how to determine which are good choices--or whether that's a concern at all!)

I absolutely recommend you hire a lawyer with game industry expertise. There's a list here in this forum. Ask the lawyer what drawbacks there might be to hiring a lawyer in a different country from yours. They're obligated to answer honestly. Red flags: they ask “what does ‘milestone’ mean?”

Hmm… Okay, thank you for your advice! ^_^

Tom Sloper said:
Red flags: they ask “what does ‘milestone’ mean?”

I mean, if that's the only sort of thing to worry about, why do I not just go for a local lawyer…? (There's at least one in my province that apparently deals in video-game law, I believe.)

That is, it sounds like you're saying that most lawyers should be fine, as long as they have some basic understanding of the game-dev process. In which case, it seems to me that a local lawyer would likely be more convenient: no time-zone issues, pricing in local currency, fluency in local law, etc. etc…

Thaumaturge said:
There's at least one in my province that apparently deals in video-game law, I believe.)

Talk to that one for sure.

Thaumaturge said:
it sounds like you're saying that most lawyers should be fine, as long as they have some basic understanding of the game-dev process.

No. I said:

Tom Sloper said:
I absolutely recommend you hire a lawyer with game industry expertise.

ABSOLUTELY, I did not say what you thought it sounded like I'm saying.

Tom Sloper said:
Talk to that one for sure.

Fair enough!

Tom Sloper said:
No. I said:

I mean, the only red-flag that you listed was knowledge of a bit of game-dev terminology. And nothing further was said as to how to choose between lawyers. Thus the implication is that there's little to choose.

[edit] Unless what you're saying is that I should hire a lawyer to tell me how to choose a lawyer…?

Thaumaturge said:
I mean, the only red-flag that you listed was knowledge of a bit of game-dev terminology.

I regret trying to answer your “red-flag” question. Please pretend I didn't respond to it at all. Get a lawyer with expertise in video games. One who's represented developers, who's helped devs resolve conflicts with publishers and litigants.

Tom Sloper said:
I regret trying to answer your “red-flag” question. Please pretend I didn't respond to it at all. Get a lawyer with expertise in video games. One who's represented developers, who's helped devs resolve conflicts with publishers and litigants.

Okay, fair enough!

Hmm… So the thing to do, then, would be to see whether a given lawyer has testimonials (and to follow up on them), or to see if I can dig up who represents other local devs, it seems to me…

Thank you for your advice! ^_^

Thaumaturge said:
it's time to seek out a lawyer, I feel.

Ouch. I don't feel that good about indie game dev anymore.

I don’t know if a support message from an internet rando will make you feel better - but here it is ? I feel you

rampeer said:

Thaumaturge said:
it's time to seek out a lawyer, I feel.

Ouch. I don't feel that good about indie game dev anymore.

I don’t know if a support message from an internet rando will make you feel better - but here it is ? The situation sucks.

Don't assume there's a problem. My assumption (unwarranted) was that there was a contract matter - either an opportunity or a problem. As frob said, there are many times a dev needs a lawyer.