Mounting a serious criminal defense starts with hiring the best possible attorney

In life, there are certain things you don’t take chances with because if you do, you run the risk of paying dearly for having taken that shortcut. If you are charged with a serious crime, one of those things should be to find the best possible criminal defense lawyer that you can afford. When you’re looking at a long stretch of prison time and/or significant fines and penalties, you will want to mount a serious criminal defense that will give you a fighting chance of maintaining your innocence or minimizing impacts to your freedom. Unless you get a court appointed lawyer, this means you’re going to have to come up with some serious money to cover your legal fees. While you may be balking at the big hit to your bottom line, it’s best to remember that without the best attorney working for you, the costs to your life could be even greater. When you hire a heavy hitter, it goes without saying that they will be experienced in practicing law as it directly relates to your type of case, but a serious criminal defense attorney will also bring several other things to the table. An excellent defense attorney will keep you rooted in reality and remove much of the emotion from the case. By doing so, together, you can make clear-headed decisions that will fall in line with the prosecutor’s and the court’s thinking. This objectivity can help take away the depression, embarrassment and fear that defendants often suffer... Read More

Intent is a key component of white collar criminal defense

The business world has become a more complex and more global mechanism over the past several years. As this has taken place, government oversight of businesses has also taken on greater importance. Regulating business in a modern era has created a greater focus on white collar crimes, which have become more sophisticated and more encompassing in scope than ever before. White collar crimes can encompass a variety of situations ranging from violating securities laws, antitrust laws, embezzlement, fraud, environmental law, bribery, tax evasion and even corruption. Defending against white collar crimes requires a particularly versatile legal team who must have defense skills in a broad range of areas. Their expertise must extend to civil as well as criminal law and they must be able to find ways to reduce or eliminate a business’s or an individual’s liability. Part of what a good law firm will do is also assess how much exposure a business will have in determining how to best remedy a situation. Finally, part of a defense strategy will also attempt to determine how a company’s relationship with government agencies and regulatory bodies will change as a result of criminal or civil legal actions. Perhaps the single most important factor in a white collar crime case is what the defendant’s intent was regarding the actions they took. If it can be shown the person or the business was out to intentionally lie or deceive a client or the public, then defending them can be a significantly more challenging... Read More

Considering costs when hiring a felony attorney

When you need to hire a felony defense attorney, you’ll use various criteria to make your decision. Experience, familiarity with your particular court system, track record and many other factors which will come into play. One thing that doesn’t get as much attention as some of the others is how you’ll pay for your legal defense and how much your defense will cost. Obviously, depending on the type of case, your legal fees could be as little as a few thousand dollars, or if the case is complex, involves federal statutes, or requires a lot of forensic work and expert witnesses, you could be looking at as much as six figures or more. In a perfect world, you wouldn’t need to worry about costs, but the reality is that your financial situation will dictate to some degree how much you can afford in legal fees. In some cases, you may not be able to afford an attorney and will have to rely on a court-appointed attorney to represent you. Despite a heavy case load, public defenders can bring significant experience to any case, and they will be able to tap the resources of the public defender’s office. Those resources can include many other seasoned attorneys, who will collaborate on a highly competent defense for your case. In fact, in some court systems, private criminal defense lawyers will accept court appointed cases, meaning that you could wind up with the same lawyers to represent you whether you hired a private attorney... Read More