Questions To Ask When Hiring a Criminal Defence Attorney

If you’re stuck in a criminal dispute, you must hire an excellent criminal defense attorney. The determination of who constitutes as a good attorney requires considerable deliberation from your end. There is no one-size-fits-all formula that can help you come to this conclusion. However, there are certain questions that you can ask to understand if the attorney is the right fit for your case. These will also help you to know if the lawyer has the necessary expertise required for your case.

Moreover, you can also gauge if you’ll be comfortable working with them. This is an important point as the case can go on for years. Further, an excellent attorney-client relationship can also result in better outcomes.

In this blog, we discuss some of the questions that you can ask your attorney –

Whether the lawyer offers a free initial consultation?

The first thing that you should know is if the lawyer offers a free initial consultation. A 5-minute phone call cannot answer all your doubts. Moreover, even the lawyer will not be able to understand the facts of the case intricately. Both the attorney and the client must have a conversation such that the former gets to understand the situation in totality. The lawyer needs to know the charges leveled against you, your criminal history, whether you have been arrested earlier, or if you’re stuck in any immigration issue. After discussing this, they will be able to guide you on the matter. You will also get to know if you’re comfortable working with the attorney for the coming weeks.

Is the attorney’s practice specifically focused on criminal law?

Lawyers are different from doctors. This is because most of them are jack of all trades, masters of none. Many lawyers establish a general practice wherein they handle all sorts of disputes – be it marital, civil, arbitration or criminal. There are only some lawyers who specialize in a particular area of law. We recommend you hire an attorney who specializes in criminal law. They will be able to form better legal defenses as this is the only work that they do. Thus, they would have had better expertise on criminal matters than general practice lawyers. 

Attorney Stroleny Law specializes in criminal law. They have dealt with such cases before and know exactly what to do.

What is the lawyer’s fee?

This is a sensitive topic for most clients. You will want to hire a top-notch lawyer, but your budget might not accommodate their hourly rate. Yes, most lawyers charge an hourly rate. This can be unpredictable as your case might go on for months or, worse, years. We recommend you hire a lawyer that has a fixed charge. By charging a fixed fee, the lawyers agree to work on your case till the end, no matter how long it proceeds. The same is economical and an assurance that you won’t burn a hole in your pocket fighting the dispute in the court of law.

We understand that choosing the perfect lawyer can be a tedious task. Many aspects have to be considered. Hence, we suggest you go by experience, skillset, and the answers given to the questions mentioned in the blog. It will help you narrow down your options and pick a lawyer that suits you and your case the best.