When you need a criminal lawyer, you have no time to waste. Given the specifics of your situation, your lawyer will need time to gather and review necessary information. This means that you probably should’ve started looking for a criminal lawyer yesterday. Here are three quick and easy things you should do to find the right criminal defense lawyer.
Assess your case
The first thing you’ll want to do is assess your case and find experts in your particular area of need. Criminal cases vary and so do the needs of different individuals involved. If you’re a victim of a crime and are in need of assistance, you’ll want to reach out to city, state and federal defense attorneys instead of a criminal defense lawyer. Defense lawyers assist the accused. So, if you’re being accused of a crime and feel that the accusations are unfair, a skilled criminal defense lawyer will best help you. The more experience they have, the better chance you have of winning your case.
Run a background check
One of the best ways to see whether a specific service is reliable is to run a background check. Background checks provide potential clients and consumers the opportunity to vet a company or contractor. You can also check out lawyers, seeing as they provide a service to the public.
Good websites to run checks on include Information.com, which offers information on a multitude of services and topics. You can also use services such as Yelp (News - Alert) and Google Reviews to see what other customers thought of the business. For example, if you’re looking for New Jersey attorneys or a motorcycle accident lawyer in California, you can search for that on Google and find a whole list of potential attorneys along with their Google review scores.
Don’t, however, trust Facebook (News - Alert) reviews; the company or business has free reign to regulate those reviews, meaning they can easily delete ones they don’t like. Rad Deaton, a criminal lawyer in Charleston, suggests that all individuals should do their due diligence and research lawyers before reaching out for their services. You could end up paying a hefty price for a lackluster lawyer and a poor outcome at trial otherwise.
Prepare the right questions
Before reaching out to potential criminal defense lawyers, come up with questions that’ll help verify their credibility. You want to center these questions on your needs and how the lawyers can help assist in resolving your problem.
Consider asking questions about their history. How long have you been practicing criminal law? In what areas of criminal law are you most experienced? How often do your cases go to trial? How often do you win your cases? How many cases like my own have you taken on and how successful were you?
You want to get a good understanding of whether or not this lawyer is experienced, especially in your particular need area, and how successful they’ve been throughout their career.
You may want to ask questions about charges and fees as well. How much will this cost or what do you normally charge for your services? Asking about their history in keeping cases from going to court will also help in assessing the overall costs of your case. A case that is resolved out of court can be cheaper or result in lesser sentences.
A last question to ask would be: How would you handle my case? This, of course, is hypothetical because they’re currently not handling your case. However, this question will show you how your potential lawyer will approach your legal matters and if he thinks you should go to trial or settle.
Ultimately, being involved in criminal cases is stressful. Even more stressful is shelling out for the wrong criminal defense lawyer and paying the price of heavy fines or, worse, jail time. Take your time and do your research to find the right attorney for your case.
