Being charged with a crime can be devastating. Not only could it affect your freedom, but a criminal conviction can have far-reaching consequences, affecting your finances, your ability to have gainful employment in the future or even rent an apartment.
When facing a criminal charge, you want to find reputable legal counsel. They will work on your behalf to better understand your case, discuss openly with you the next steps in the legal process and what options are available to you. However, since all criminal defense attorneys are not alike, it’s important to keep these considerations in mind when selecting one:
Experience
Simply, you will have more confidence if you work with a lawyer who has extensive practice in criminal defense. One of the best ways to measure experience is by finding out how many cases a criminal defense lawyer has worked on, as this provides you with a framework of their legal profile. To illustrate, Brett Steinberg began his legal career as a public defender in the Miami-Dade Public Defender Office, where he tried over 25 cases to verdict. This illustrates the high level of experience Steinberg possesses, and experience counts when your freedom is at risk.
Success
Another thing you should do is to ask for documentation of their success. Many reputable lawyers will be happy to supply this information to you because it shows their adept at their profession. If possible, ask for results for cases that are similar to yours that way you know what to expect with the attorney.
Reputation
An attorney’s reputation should be the most important factor you consider before deciding to use their services. Luckily, there are many places you can go to research attorneys. Avvo is a service that pairs you with lawyers, who possess experience in the area you need legal assistance in. Moreover, Avvo also provides ratings on attorneys based on the attorney’s profile and research they gathered from state bar associations. Next, Avvo uses this information to assign a rating to lawyers, with 10 out of 10 being the highest score. For lawyers like Steinberg who earned a 10 out of 10, it indicates you are dealing with a reputable lawyer. In addition, you can gather customer reviews using Avvo and Google to give you a better idea of what customers’ experiences have been like.
