What to look for in a lawyer

sunset+skies

Hey ladies,

I'm hoping you can give me a bit of advice here. My housemate, S, has a 14-month old, L,  with her ex-fiance. Things were amicable for a while, but now that she's moved in with DH and I, and the ex's mother realizes that S is truly not getting back with her son, and has support to back her up, she's flipped her lid, and is doing everything she can to make S's life hell.

For example, when S was in the process of moving in with us, she left XF at her apartment for his visitation to grocery shop. He had to do visitation there as he was couch-surfing at the time. While S was out, XF's mother came in and took the crib that XF had bought while he and S were still together. She's also tried to take back toys that were given as birthday gifts. She's made false statements that daycare has had to buy extra food for L, and that daycare said if there "wasn't an improvement" that CAS (the canadian version of CPS), would be called. We've already confirmed with the daycare that none of this is true. When her and XF picked L up for visitation a couple weeks ago, S was working, so I was home with L. XF's mom quizzed me on S's smoking habits (she's working on quitting, and doing very well), such as how close to the house she smoked, how often, etc. Then two days ago, during visitation they took him on an unauthorized doctor visit (which we found out after is against the law in their situation) for a cough that we're sure she's going to try and link to S's smoking.

The concern that we have right now is that XF's mom is going to call CAS herself. Aside from the daycare comments, XF told S that she'd made comments about how dirty the house was - which, admittedly, it wasn't a paragon of cleanliness, but it was untidy, not dirty, because we'd just finished moving S's stuff in literally the night before. S is already planning on going in to CAS herself this week, to discuss what the process is, and what the consequences would be not only for herself, but for DH and I, and our DS, if a complaint is made.

The next step she wants to make is to get a lawyer, which is where this now ridiculously long post is leading to. There are over 30 lawyers in this town practicing family/child custody law. To narrow it down, I'm hoping you can give me suggestions on a few questions to ask, what we should look for, etc. I know you can't give me price ranges, because that varies area by area. Just the basics to make sure we actually get a GOOD lawyer.

Thank you!