Choosing a Criminal Defense Attorney - 12 Things to Look For (And 12 things to Avoid)

I'm going to start this article and finish it with the same standard for choosing an attorney - I give you more information below, but here's what you must demand in your lawyer:

You want an attorney who can and will effectively tell your story to the jury. That's a great attorney.

So, you've been charged with a crime. Or your son, brother, boyfriend, husband, wife, cousin... has. Do you go with the public defender or a court appointed lawyer? If you can't afford to hire one on your own, the Court has to appoint you an attorney. First, they will qualify you as indigent. Then, they will likely assign you to the Public Defender (PD) or, if there is a conflict - like they represent your co-defendant - then you will get a court appointed attorney (an attorney in private practice who accepts appointments of indigent defendants from the Court).

Before I move on with choosing an attorney, let me say that the general perception that the PD or that court appointed attorney are not as good as attorneys you might hire is complete bunk. I mean it. In fact, PDs and court appointed attorneys may be better and more experienced. Just because they don't have fancy offices or charge you $25,000 to look at your case doesn't mean you won't get top representation. The only problem PDs and appointed attorneys have is that they generally have a heavier case load, so, you might not get as much attention and hand holding as you would like. However, they often have a much better relationship with the prosecutor and may be able to get advocate more effectively for you than that high priced attorney in the tower downtown.

But, here's the most important thing to know about PD's and appointed attorneys - they are all in - they do this gig because they love helping people - they believe in helping people. They're not in it for the money, and that says a lot. Nobody gets rich defending indigent clients. But, many people do it every day. They are noble and deserve a great deal of respect and a vote of thanks and confidence they don't normally get. If you have one of these attorneys, be proud. You are represented by a truly noble individual who has your best interest at heart. There is a lot to be said for that.

That being said, if I were going out to look for an attorney to hire, here's what I would look for and what I would avoid:

Attributes to look for:

1. Honest and straight forward;
2. Talk to you and treat you as a person;
3. Look you in the eye when they talk to you;
4. Listen to you and ask you a lot of questions about your case;
5. They write down your answers;
6. They tell you the strengths and weaknesses of your case;
7. They give you an honest assessment of your case;
8. They have a respectful rapport with the prosecutor;
9. They have a respectful rapport with the judge;
10. They look at your case well enough to know if any of your fundamental rights have been violated by the police and are willing to fight for them if you want them to;
11. They are happy to be where they are;
12. The more experience, the better - but don't discount the zealous newbie! Sometimes he's got something to prove! BUT - they should have trial experience and/or should have gone through top-notch trial training - The Trial Lawyer's College or, in Tennessee - the training offered through Tennessee Association of Defense Lawyers are two places that provide top notch training for criminal defense attorneys. I've been to both and can tell you from experience that they offer great programs. Your lawyer needs to at least have done something like that - because they don't teach you to try cases in law school - hopefully, your lawyer, if he's young, has a mentor he can go to for advice.

 Avoid:

 

1. Anyone who promises you a result;
2. Anyone who wants a fee to review your case and tell you if they will take it - this is a con - run, fast, don't look back no matter how good a game they talk (I've heard of people laying out $25,000 to find out that the attorney didn't want their case - not to do any work, just evaluate it - now that's a racket);
3. Anyone who says they have a prosecutor or a judge in their pocket;
4. Anyone who says they know the cop and can fix it;
5. Anyone who spends more time campaigning then he does working;
6. Anyone who runs crazy TV ads or has his face on billboards and buses;
7. Anyone who says that they can get you "off" if you give them a whole bunch of money;
8. Anyone who won't take the time to listen to you;
9. Anyone who doesn't look you in the eye when you speak;
10. Anyone who's attention is elsewhere when you meet;
11. Anyone who doesn't ask you a lot of questions about your case and listen carefully to the answers;
12. Anyone who won't give you a solid, sensible answer about the strengths and weaknesses of your case.

When I take a case, I take it with the attitude that I am going to prepare it for trial. I work toward trial until somebody tells me to stop. Often, that is my client, because he wants to accept a deal that the prosecutor offered him. Here's the advice I give my client's when they are consider whether or not they should take a deal:

If, after a careful assessment of your case, you can do better by taking a deal from the prosecutor than if you go to trial and lose, then you should take the deal. This assessment factors in the strength of the State's case against you and the strength of your defenses. There is no way to predict what the jury will do - often they do the unexpected - but I've tried enough cases that I can often give my client's a reasonable assessment of their chances at trial. If, after all that, you are better off taking the deal, then I'd tell you to take it. The only caveat would be, of course, if you are innocent - then, you must take it to trial. I say that because I have seen people take deals even when they were innocent, against my advice, because they so desperately wanted to get out of jail and could not afford the price of the bond. (That's for another discussion).

In the end, you have to have confidence in your attorney. You have to believe that he is going to fight for you and do his best on your behalf. Just remember, fighting doesn't mean yelling and getting all pompous in front of the judge, it has nothing to do with righteous indignation and vitriolic satire - fighting means finding the strengths of your case and the weaknesses of the State's and clearly stating both. Fighting means taking up your cause, litigating the issues that are worth litigating - attacking the State's case where it is vulnerable. And, as I said above, you want this:

You want an attorney who can and will effectively tell your story to the jury. That's a great attorney.

Thanks for your interest. I'd love to hear your comments.

Bob Vogel