Attorney Reviews

Have you or a loved on recently been charged with a crime? Most people either use the public defender that is provided them by the state or hire an attorney who happens to know somebody that they know. You would be surprised how few people actually research their options and find the best attorney for their situation.

Public Defenders

Contrary to what many people think, public defenders are not bad attorneys. Usually they are young (although there are several exceptions), but they still have legal degrees from the same schools as the high priced criminal defense attorneys.

To become a high priced criminal defense attorney you have to start somewhere, and usually it is in the public defender's office (although many people choose to start as prosecutors as well). If you are offered a public defender you should consider their record and treat them as another option that you have.

The only real drawback to working with a public defender is that you will never get their full attention. They are severely overworked and if you want a vigorous defense that you can expect from a private attorney you will need to do a lot of the leg work - again, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's just something to be aware of.

A friend of a friend

This is the most common mistake that people who choose private defense counsel usually make - instead of doing thorough research they ask around and end up with a friend of a friend or, worse yet, a family member.

The problem with a friend of a friend or a family member is that you really can't be objective - you think they are good just by virtue of the fact that you know them. If you are the type of person that can separate yourself from the decision and look only at the data available, maybe you are OK considering these types of people. If you are the type of person who doesn't like to offend people you should probably just steer clear of these types of people all together.

You need to be able to talk to your attorney openly - if they aren't doing their job you need to be able to let them know that you think that and not worry about any repercussions outside of your own legal defense. This is a time when you need to have a singular focus and working with friends or family can cloud that judgement.

How to do some research

Court records are public records - in other words, you can go to your local courthouse (or clerk's office in some areas) and see court records from past cases. In some cases you can get this information online (Nevada, for instance, is really good at this), which will make your job a lot easier. This is where the real work begins - you should plan on spending at least a few hours pouring over these records.

First of all, by this point you probably know who your judge is going to be - if this is the case look exclusively at your judge's cases. Every judge has their own opinions about different crimes and will respond differently. Some attorneys tend to do better in front of some judges than others.

Here's what you should do to do thorough attorney research:

1. Find similar cases dealing with the exact same charges you are dealing with. If this is in an electronic format this should be easy - if not, you will probably be sifting through a lot of papers.
2. Keep a spreadsheet with a column showing the attorney who was representing each case and what the sentence was. You should have a separate column for jail time, fines and probation.
3. The more data you gather the more accurate this analysis will be - again, you should spend quite a few hours putting this all together. If you can significantly decrease your sentence then every hour will be more than worth it!
4. Analyze the data - take an average of each column for each attorney. Who has the best track record? Who tends to minimize their client's jail time or, better yet, is able to reach a plea in abeyance.

This is a lot of work, but if you are facing a serious crime you need to be ready to do what it takes to protect yourself. If you find that your public defender has a comparable or better track record than a private attorney, you should work with him or her.