GET A GOOD LAWYER
The best, and most important advice, anyone can give you, when you are accused of a crime, is GET A GOOD LAWYER AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE! Find the best, most experienced, criminal lawyer you can. But, as we will see, experience, and technical competence, is merely part of the equation. Ultimately, a "good lawyer", the "best lawyer", is one you can trust and who cares about you.
FINDING THE RIGHT LAWYER FOR YOU
All lawyers are not the same. Most lawyers have been to law school and all have passed the state bar examination, at some time in their lives, but lawyers are human beings too and are just as diverse, and different, as any other collection of people.
Certainly they all have different interests, abilities and experience that vary greatly. They also have different personalities, perspectives, attitudes, values and problems. All of those things affect you, their ability to work with you, and how effective they will be in their representation of you.
The law spans a vast body of human knowledge. Because of that, it has become increasingly specialized. Just as the "old family doctor", making house calls, is largely a thing of the past, so is the "old family lawyer" who took care, as best he could, of all of a family's legal needs like wills, divorces, the sale of property and the probating of estates.
Most lawyers, as a practical matter, focus on one or two major areas, such as estate planning, real estate, corporate law, family law, tax law, personal injury law or criminal law. They do so out of necessity since developing expertise in even one of those areas can be a full time job requiring a life time commitment.
Within the area of criminal law, there are lawyers who may tend to handle only certain kinds of cases like murder cases, or drug cases, or sex cases, or cases involving "white collar crime".
Not all lawyers have the same experience or training. Not all lawyers are experienced trial lawyers or skilled negotiators. Not all are trained investigators. Not all have the same writing and organizational skills. Not all devote the necessary amount of time and energy needed or pay the attention to detail that is necessary.
Many have had nothing to do with criminal law since law school or the bar exam. Many have never handled a criminal case in their lives and wouldn't have the foggiest idea where to begin, or what to do, if they found themselves representing someone accused of a crime.
If you are charged with a serious crime, make no mistake about it, you need a lawyer who is experienced, and trained, in criminal law; one who keeps up with the latest developments in criminal law. You need someone who has been there; who knows what its like to take the scorn, or ridicule, of an irate judge or to feel the seething hatred of twelve angry jurors when you walk into the courtroom each morning!
Beware of lawyers that are overly aggressive or combative. There comes a time in almost every criminal case, when you need a lawyer who is aggressive; who will stand-up for you; incur the wrath of the judge; take the heat; even risk being held in contempt, and put in jail himself, or herself, in the course of vigorously defending you and your rights! No doubt about it.
But don't mistake huffing and puffing, swaggering and loud talk, or behaving like a bull in a china shop, for substance. It may be nothing more than "B.S." and nobody, especially, judges and juries, like "B.S.".
Lawyers who "bait" judges and go out of their way to alienate jurors; who strive to make enemies; who insist on taking those people "head-on"; rarely serve their clients well in doing so.
Styles and approaches vary among criminal lawyers but most good criminal lawyers instinctively know that "you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar".
Today, too many judges and juries start out believing that you're guilty. They may not like you. They may fear you. They may even hate you. It's hard to persuade those kinds of people to even listen to you, let alone trust you, or believe you, or acquit you. One thing for certain, you're never going to get them to do any of those things if you attack them.
You need a lawyer who is cool, calm, disciplined, who is reasonable, believable and focused. You need someone who is respectful, who a judge and jury can relate to and be willing to listen to; someone who can help them overcome all the fear and anger that so pervades the system today.
Is that the whole answer? No, of course not. But it is the first step in a process that will, hopefully, make it possible for them to more calmly, and clearly, see you, the issues and the facts as they are rather than just instinctively flushing you down the drain.