Expat Community > Costa Rica

Augusto
Joined 2010
Posts: 74

How to hire the right attorney, engineer, accountant, etc in Costa Rica?

12 years ago

It's actually no secret to Costa Rican citizens, however it is an enigma for foreigners. Here's the answer: Just find out if the professional is an alumnus of the Universidad de Costa Rica. I am going to explain you why: The Universidad de Costa Rica is a public institution of excellence which has the only serious admission (SAT type) test in the country, every year it welcomes only the best local talent to study in its campus. Every single high school student takes the exam in hopes of having the prestige of studying there. If they don't make it then it's easy they are admitted into any career they want with NO Admission exam just paying for their career!!!! So can you imagine careers that require so much attention to detail such as Law, Medicine or Engineering are open to anyone!!!
The UCR alumni are known for obtaining the highest and best paid positions in both public and private companies. If you hire a professional that attended the UCR you have 2 clear facts: 1. That person was able to enter a career in which he or she competed against the best brains in CR.
2. That person really studied during his or her career as the UCR has no lucrative ends its students only graduate after going through normally at least 7 years of study.
The Law School of the UCR has more than 150 years of experience and 17 presidents of the Republic versus less than 40 years of the oldest private law school and with zero presidents.

Private education has created a serious damage to Costa Rican professional reality as it allows into critical careers individuals who at times are not fit for such serious professions, if in the UCR you have to undergo 7 years at a private one its only 4 years at maximum, so you will get a professional who does not know many times what real sacrifice is. So it's very simple ask your attorney where did he or she study law, you can even ask for the lawyer id and you will find something very curious, if the attorney attended the UCR I will guarantee you 100% that the id will show the UCR while if the lawyer did not attend the UCR it will be blank.
Again I am not going to say that all UCR lawyers are great and that all other lawyers are horrible, because it's not true, but it sure is an initial key consideration, if you know that the professional is from the UCR you will know what type of person you are talking to. After you confirm that he or she is from the UCR you should look for foreign postgraduate education from top US or international schools and memberships in prestigious associations, in the case of lawyers a simple verification is to see if at least the lawyer is featured in the list of attorneys of the US.
In my law firm I have lawyers from the UCR and from private ones and I can tell you that for complex legal work I will always select UCR material as they are used to serious and in depth investigation.
The same is true for almost all the other careers, because of private interests Bar Exams have not been allowed in the past making the private university business tremendously lucrative. All the Costa Rican understand this but explain all this to a foreigner! As an experienced foreign advisory attorney I feel that it is my duty to once again bring this up and save expats and retirees some headaches. If you are coming to Costa Rica you should give this detail some thought.

It's not about a nice website, a fancy car, a montblanc pen or elegant suit it's all about the serious legal training.

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How to hire the right attorney, engineer, accountant, etc in Costa Rica?

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