You get home from a long night in jail and are bombarded with hundreds of flyers from criminal defense lawyers. Your bonding company suggested someone for you to call (which is against the law for them to do). Your friend tells you he has a great, cheap lawyer. What do you do?
Why are different lawyers so many different prices? Don’t they all do the same thing?
No! The less expensive lawyers charge less because they work in high volume. That means you will likely speak to their assistant, not them. On court dates, you will wait all morning for them to get there, only to have the case reset. Why do they reset it? They are charging you by the reset, so it’s more money for them.
Being charged with any criminal case is serious. You could lose your drivers license, job, financial aid and your freedom. You need to find out how much experience they have. Who trained them? If they began as a prosecutor, they likely know the system better. They need to have tried a lot of cases to juries.
Why is it important that they try cases to juries? All the prosecutors know which defense attorneys are trial lawyers and don’t hesitate to try a case if they don’t give you what you deserve. They also know which ones don’t ever try cases, so they have no incentive to dismiss your case. You can ask the lawyer all these questions and make sure they tell you the honest truth.
And if they sound too good to be true, they probably are.
