So often I meet with people who have already to talked to an attorney about their case.  When I ask about that experience, I am frequently told that the attorney scared the person with all sorts of horrors that would happen to them if they did not hire the attorney immediately.  This is an unfortunate but real scenario and tactic that some of attorneys employ to beat the competition and land another client.  The sad reality is that there are hundreds of attorneys out there to chose from with just a handful of them worthy of being your attorney.  They range in experience from “just out of law school” to 30 + years of experience.  They can be specialists in certain areas of law or general practitioners.  Simply because an attorney can sit with you and read your citation, indictment or other charging document and say “I can beat these charges for you” does not mean that s/he can indeed beat the charges.  There are so many factors at play in a criminal case, that in my opinion, it is unethical for an attorney to make such bold statements before a person has even been arraigned on their charges.  Factors that can make a huge difference in any criminal case include who the assigned judge is, who the assigned prosecutor is, who are the various police officers involved, who the victim is if there is one, and, sometimes most importantly, who your attorney is.  If your attorney is someone who does not have a good reputation in the legal community, who does not truly care about you or your case or who does not know the laws, rules and the ins-and-outs of criminal practice, the only person that is hurt is you. 

We live in a free-market society.  In essence, this means that you do not have to buy the first car you test drive. Neither do you have to hire the first attorney you talk to.  Ironically, in some law firms you may not even meet with the attorney you are supposedly hiring.  Instead, you may meet with some associate attorney who claims you will be represented by the “top dog” of the law firm only to never actually meet the “top dog” even when you go to court. Regardless of the circumstances, the most critical thing is that you feel comfortable and confident with the attorney that you retained.  Of course, it works both ways.  I have met with people whose case I did not want to defend or whose objectives or requests of me were so distasteful that I refused to accept their case.   It is important that the relationship be one of trust and honesty from the beginning.  For example, I knew an attorney who would proclaim to future clients that he could beat the case, take tens-of-thousands of dollars from the client, and then convince the client that it is in their best interest to take a plea offer–to my knowledge that attorney never took a felony case to trial.

It is a no-brainer that the worse your case is, the more money you will likely pay to hire a good attorney.  If you cannot afford an attorney and the State is seeking jail time then you should be able to qualify for the public defender.  If for some reason the public defender’s office has a conflict or is overly-busy, then your case may be assigned to the legal defender’s office or to a court-appointed attorney. There is not much difference between a public defender and a legal defender.  A court appointed attorney is typically an attorney who has his or her own office space, takes retained, private cases and has one or more contracts with the different courts to be appointed to represent low-income individuals.  The attorney is typically paid a flat fee for each case or an hourly rate if the case is complex or in federal court.   Sometimes people make too much money for a public defender, legal defender or court-appointed attorney, but not enough money to be able to afford to retain a private attorney.  In those situations, I always suggest contacting the Pima County Bar Association at www.pimacountybar.org  (520-623-8258) to see if you might qualify for the QuILT (Qualified Income Legal Team) Program or Lawyer Referral Services.

Retaining an attorney should not be a traumatic experience.  If you have chosen well, then you should walk out of the attorney’s office with a huge weight lifted off of your shoulders.  The reality is that the wheels of justice in the criminal world turn very slowly and you do not want to be agonizing over whether or not your case is being properly handled by the attorney you chose.  No doubt, there is a lot of lag time during criminal cases–time during which you probably will not hear from your attorney.  But, if you wake up in a cold sweat wondering what is going on with your case, you should feel comfortable enough with your decision that peace of mind is just a phone call away.