One of the most difficult decisions you have to make is to choose a criminal defense attorney for yourself or for a loved one. Criminal lawyers or also known as public defenders are the designated attorneys for individuals and organizations that have been charged with a crime.
Their job is to basically handle criminal cases such as domestic violence crime, drug crimes, theft, DUI or driving under the influence, fraud, and more. So if you are looking for a criminal defense lawyer, you must make one of the wisest choices you will ever make in hire life because you or your loved one might totally end up behind bars if ever your lawyer lost the case. So here are some tips when it comes to choosing the right criminal defense attorney.
IDENTIFY WHAT THEY DO
The very first thing you have to do in order to find out if you’re choosing a good one or not is to simply do your own little research about what exactly criminal defense attorneys do. Basically, they specialize in either civil or criminal law, their duty is to help you with all the legal matters that are related to the case filed against you, they will also issue motions that can improve your situation, or better yet, dismiss your case. There might be a time that you would have to go on a trial, and the defense attorney will be responsible for representing you.
KNOW WHAT YOU NEED
Now that you have an idea on what they do, it is now time to identify what exactly did you do, because choosing an attorney will depend on the case filed against you. If you broke a state law, such as traffic violations, broken contracts, etc, you would need an attorney who specializes in state law. However, if you have violated the Constitution, you would need a federal attorney. It is advisable to choose an experienced federal attorney because they would need to dedicate a particular amount of time to actually solve your case, and it can also be too complicated.
CHECK OUT THEIR QUALITIES
The best thing to do when choosing a criminal defense attorney is to test their characteristics. A good attorney always collects as much information as they can from their clients as well as the investigators. It is also best if you know how many cases the attorney has handled and how many of them won.
If you haven’t worked with an attorney before, ask some family and friends if they could help you out. If they know an attorney but they’re not exactly the one suited for your case, you could definitely ask for a referral.
CONSIDER A PUBLIC DEFENDER
Not a lot of people could afford to hire an attorney to help them with their case, that is why there is such thing as public defenders.
If you cannot afford to hire an attorney, you would need to seek help from a public defender, the only downside for this is that they have limited time, as well as limited resources to work on your case. This is good for people whose charges are not that serious.
Choosing an attorney is definitely too far from being easy because whether you’re guilty or not, these criminal defense attorneys must defend you. Putting so much trust to a person that could change your life is really difficult. You have to be cautious especially if an attorney promises to win your case even if he or she doesn’t know anything about it yet.