1. Do you handle criminal law?

In days gone
by, many attorneys were “general practice” attorneys who you could call
if you were arrested, needed a divorce, wanted a Last Will and
Testament, or were injured in a car wreck. As the law has evolved and
become more complicated, it is now more common for attorneys and law
firms to focus on one or two areas of law. Many attorneys don’t
represent criminal defendants, or don’t handle criminal cases as a
regular part of their practice. Therefore, before you make a final
decision on an attorney you should probably ask them if they handle
criminal cases as a significant portion of their law practice.

2. Do you handle the type of case that I’ve been charged with?

Even within criminal attorneys, there are attorneys that specialize in
certain types of cases, and attorneys that refuse to handle cases
involving certain crimes. For instance, some criminal attorneys only
practice in State Court, while others also handle Federal Criminal
cases. Federal law is fairly standardized nationally and can be
drastically different than state criminal law practice. There are
attorneys whose focus is on handling federal criminal cases across the
country. Additionally, some attorneys refuse to handle various types of
cases such as DUI, murder or child sex cases due to that attorneys own
personal preferences or prejudices. So another question you should ask
before deciding on which attorney to hire is whether they handle the
type of case you are currently facing.

3. What kind of results have you obtained in cases similar to mine?

While you may have found an attorney that does handle criminal matters
that are similar to your case, you want to make sure that they have
handled such cases with good results for their clients. You may not want
to hire an attorney that routinely pleads all of their clients guilty
to lengthy prison sentences, as you may not be interested in pleading
guilty. You should want to determine if they have ever tried a similar
case to a jury, and what type of verdicts they have obtained. A
determination of the results your prospective attorney has obtained in
cases similar to yours will give you a good idea of that attorney’s
knowledge and comfort level in handling cases such as yours.

It
has been said that your decision who to hire to represent you in a
criminal case is one of the most important decisions you may make in
your life. Before making such a decision, you owe it to yourself to find
the answers to these