Just imagine
you've been arrested and facing serious criminal charges. You've lived a clean,
crime-free life till now (probably) and here you are facing this thunderbolt
that struck you out of nowhere. You have no idea of what to do, but you know
that if you're not represented by a licensed and competent Los Angeles criminal attorney, you may end up behind the bars or
paying fat capital punishment which can break your back financially. None of
your friends or family members practice law and you don't know whom to call to.
After doing some
research, you've got some contact numbers and end up calling couple of criminal
defense attorneys and scheduling an initial consultation with them. Regardless
of whom you end up hiring, there are some basic questions you should ask any
attorney before you hire him. Read on to know more about these questions.
1. Do you handle
criminal law?
In earlier days,
most attorneys were ''general practice'' attorneys who were sought after
whenever someone was arrested, physically hurt in an accident, needed a
divorce, or wanted a Last Will to name few scenarios. Now, law has become more
complex and most law firms and attorneys focus on one or two areas of law. Not
every law firm handles criminal cases, so you should ask this particular
question to know if they handle criminal cases or not.
2. Do you handle
the type of criminal cases I've been charged with?
Since there are
different type of crime cases, many attorneys specialize in handling certain
type of cases while many of them do not handle criminal cases involving certain
crimes. For example, some criminal attorneys only practice in State Court,
while many other handle Federal Criminal cases.
3. What kind of
results have you obtained in cases similar to mine?
Not only it is important
to find a criminal law attorney LosAngeles that handles similar criminal cases like yours, it is also
important to check out their success ratio in handling cases. A successful
lawyer with majority of positive verdicts in favor of his clients will
obviously attract more clients, though his fees may be more than what others
charge.