You need an attorney that helps you resolve any outstanding legal matters you may be dealing with. However, not just any person will do, considering the constraints in time and money. As a result, one should prepare beforehand with the relevant questions to help them enlist the professional’s services best suited for them. With all of this information in mind, the following are three critical questions to ask your defense attorney.

Free Initial Consultations

The first important question to ask your defense attorney is whether or not the lawyer offers any free initial consultations. To thoroughly investigate a case and fully understand it, sitting down and having an in-person session with the lawyer, who can only provide so much information via a short telephone conversation alone. Furthermore, face-to-face interaction gives you intuition regarding your comfort level with your lawyer in the subsequent months. A professional license defense attorney sacramento can review outstanding charges and defenses against them in the first free case consultation.

They can also check about relevant facts of the case, the arrest, and associated events, whether or not any rights may have been violated, and all pertinent criminal and other history, to name a few.

Criminal Law Focus

The second important question to ask your defense attorney is whether or not the lawyer’s practice mainly centers around criminal law. As opposed to physicians who tend to specialize in particular areas, every lawyer is technically licensed to represent just about anyone state-wide in just about any case. As such, many take a general approach to their line of work as a jack of all trades. However, you will undoubtedly want to look for a criminal defense lawyer whose experience primarily and daily deals with criminal law, considering that your very freedom, future, and face are all presumably on the line or otherwise at risk.

Lawyer’s Legal Fee

The third and final important question to ask your defense attorney is how much the lawyer’s legal freedom is. This happens to be a sensitive topic for many people, as one must balance the need for finding a criminal defense lawyer who can defend you and help resolve your legal issues. It is fundamental that your attorney does his job at an affordable cost and stays away from adding financial problems to your criminal ones. 

A huge red flag is when a lawyer promises to inform you of their rate after the case is resolved, as this information should always be presented transparently and upfront. Many criminal defense attorneys tend to charge hourly fees, which can become unpredictable and high due to the simultaneous unpredictability of the length of time a case may take to resolve. The best solution then is to look to enlist a criminal defense lawyer who charges and works through a flat or fixed fee rather than overcharging and hoping for the best with overzealous and often misplaced optimism.

However, charging reasonable and fixed amounts and backing them up with concrete and consistent experience reduces unpredictability and demonstrates professionalism.

Your attorney’s primary goal is to reassure and empower the defendant regarding your every legal and financial security and freedom and face, not just any old defense attorney. 

One will have to come prepared in seeking out an experienced and professional criminal defense attorney who will be upfront with you throughout the entire process and work tirelessly to be the best possible advocate for you. The correct attorney should ultimately put you at ease in knowing that you have chosen well and are in safe hands. 

There are many lawyers out there, most of whom are indeed qualified and capable. However, not everyone is best suited for your desires and situation. As such, it will be essential to be able to detect and act decisively upon red flags as they appear so that you will end up successful in defending yourself from a legal and social, and financial perspective. Furthermore, even the criminal defense attorney will have a positive experience that reassures future clients.