Being charged with any type of crime is a very serious situation. Those that are found guilty could face a variety of penalties including financial penalization, imprisonment, and loss of certain privileges. Due to this, ensuring you have the best legal representation possible continues to be very important. When you are looking for a criminal defense attorney, you may find there are a lot of choices to consider, which can make the process of picking one confusing. Fortunately, there are various tips to follow that can help you choose the best criminal defense lawyer for your situation.
Alignment with Strategy on How to Move Forward
When you are going to hire any type of attorney, one of the first things they will do is provide you with a consultation on your case. This will include providing you an assessment of what defense options you have, what the potential penalization could be, and what could occur if you try to accept a plea bargain. The attorney will also give recommendations for the best way to move forward based on the information they have. It is important that you and your attorney are on the same page and agree on how to move forward. If your attorney is not aligned with you, it could cause additional stress throughout the legal proceedings.
Experience with Type of Charges
The area of criminal law is rather broad and tends to cover any type of crime that you can be charged with. However, many lawyers tend to focus on certain types of crimes once they develop a specialty. It is important that you hire an attorney that is experienced and understands the type of crime you are accused of and charges that have been assessed. When you have an attorney that is experienced with these types of cases, it can help them build an effective strategy for overall defense.
Experience in Local Area
Similar to any other type of industry, connections created in the legal industry are very important. A criminal defense attorney that has been working in a certain area for a long time will likely have a good professional relationship with prosecutors, judges, and other professionals in the field. These relationships can help to facilitate a more efficient process and can be beneficial when it comes to negotiations. This can help you receive a better outcome without having to go through the formal courtroom process.
Resources to Manage Case
Another factor to consider as you are looking for a new criminal defense attorney is if the attorney has the resources available to effectively manage your case. A criminal case can end up taking a lot of time and work to help ensure you receive the best outcome possible. Due to this, you need to get an understanding of whether your attorney has the time and resources to properly dedicate to your case. You can best understand this by assessing the attorney’s current workload and evaluating other resources they have internally. You should look for an attorney that has a qualified team or proper amount of available to ensure you receive the best representation possible.
Communication and Connection
If you are going through a criminal case proceeding, you will likely end up spending a lot of time speaking and meeting with your attorney. Due to this, you will want to hire an attorney that you have a good connection and have proper communication. This can help create an open dialogue that will ensure all of your questions and concerns are addressed and answered.
Reputation and Track Record
Those that need to hire an attorney will also want to have comfort knowing that their legal representation has a history of success. A criminal defense lawyer can be researched online, and you should be able to find a lot of information regarding how happy past clients have been with their overall experience. You should also be able to get information from the attorney regarding how successful they have been defending cases such as yours. This can be a good indication of how successful they will be with your case in the future.
When you are looking for legal representation for your criminal charges, finding the right representation is very important. Criminal defense lawyer Michael Panella with the Panella Law Firm is a great option to consider. Criminal defense lawyer Michael Panella is well experienced and can offer a range of services to ensure your rights are properly represented. His experience and skill in the industry can also help ensure you receive the best outcome possible for your situation.
