Hiring A Criminal Defense Lawyer
What should I consider when hiring a lawyer?
D.C. Criminal Lawyer discusses the most important factors one should consider when hiring a criminal defense lawyer in Washington, DC. If you’re facing criminal charges in the District of Columbia, you might be wondering what you should look for in a top notch criminal defense attorney. Peter shares his thoughts on the subject below. The quote segments printed below are taken from a transcribed interview with D.C. Criminal Lawyer.
“First and foremost, you want to find someone who knows enough about your kind of case.
You don’t want someone who is too much of a generalist. You want to find someone who has the knowledge not only of what your charge is, but how that works in the court that you’re going to be in, someone with local knowledge. Obviously, you wouldn’t hire a California lawyer to help you with a New York case. More specifically, you don’t want a Baltimore lawyer to defend your Washington DC case.”
“The more local the attorney’s knowledge and experience the better. Since different courts can have such different rules, different procedures, different prosecutors, things like that, for the court that you’re going to be in, you want someone who’s in that court all the time dealing with your kind of case.”
“Essentially, those two main criteria are the baseline of what you should be looking for when hiring a criminal defense attorney. On top of that, you want to go with someone who can see issues that can help your defense, a lawyer who can locate problems with your case, like realizing where police slipped up and did an unlawful search. You want a lawyer who is going to look for the holes in the prosecution’s case, like if you’re questioned without being read your Miranda rights. You want a lawyer who is going to see if there’s any investigation that needs to be done to be able to find any witnesses.”
“When you’re first talking to a lawyer, you want to get a good idea of what that lawyer’s strategy is for taking on your case, what that person is going to be looking at and doing to guide you through the case. From a legal perspective you’re not going to be able to know exactly what every nuance of his or her process is, but someone who has an idea of the direction that the case should go in should be able to give you a decent idea of their approach and explain where they want to start looking for the best defense strategies.”
“I also think when you’re talking with a lawyer, it’s really important to be able to talk to someone who actually has that idea of a game plan, rather than just telling you, ‘Here’s what your maximum penalty is,’ or ‘Here’s basic things that anyone could look up in a law book.’ That lawyer’s not really doing enough for you, if he or she can’t give you a straight forward but detailed explanation of what your best options are moving forward.”
If you need a criminal defense attorney for the misdemeanor or felony charges you’re facing in Washington, DC, D.C. Criminal Lawyer may be able to protect your rights. To read about the different practice areas covered by D.C. Criminal Lawyer, see here. Or to schedule a free consultation to discuss the details of your case, visit the contact page here.
