Top 5 Mistakes People Make When Hiring A Criminal Lawyer

When you’ve been charged with a criminal offense, one of the most important decisions you’ll ever make is choosing the right lawyer. A lot of people waste time, money, energy, and even their freedom in choosing the wrong lawyer. I’m going to break down with you the top five mistakes’ people make when hiring or choosing a lawyer in Canada.

Mistake number one, hiring a general practitioner. You see, criminal law is a very specialized area. You should hire a lawyer who specializes, who only does criminal law and is experienced in precisely the type of crime you’re charged with. That’s very important.

You don’t want to be hiring someone who does wills, estates, a little bit of criminal law, a little bit of family law. It’s kind of like doctors, isn’t it? And you know, you have a family physician who can handle certain overall things, but you when you have a serious ailment, you go to a specialist. That’s all they do day in, day out.

So that’s mistake number one, and it’s a huge error just hiring a general practitioner who dabbles in this and dabbles in that and never truly gains expertise in all the complexities of criminal law.

Mistake number two, which is many people make, hiring a lawyer based on the lowest fee. Obviously, a good criminal lawyer who’s experienced is not going to be the one with the lowest fee when you’re hiring and going for the lowest fee, when you went to a whole bunch of different lawyers and you found one that was cheap. Well, sometimes you get what you pay for, and you’ll find that out at trial. So you don’t want to make that decision based on the lowest fee.

Of course, some people can’t afford that, and that’s unfortunate, and they may have to go with that, but it’s not certainly an ideal situation if you do have the funds. And it’s not the only decision. You don’t necessarily hire the lawyer with the highest fee either. You’ve got to go with your instincts and who’s the best lawyer for a situation that you can afford, but hiring the cheapest lawyer and that’s your only decision to make. You know, “I’m going to go with this.” That’s a very poor decision.

Not checking for their courtroom experience. This is very important. When you sit down with your lawyer at your initial intake and their law firm, you need to ask very detailed questions about what their courtroom experience is in your particular crime. For example, how many of those type of trials have been vetted? How often are they in criminal court? How many trials have they done in their career? How many have they won? These questions all have to be asked and not checking courtroom experience, you may wind up with a lawyer who all they do is guilty pleas. Unfortunately, there are criminal lawyers out there, and I call them guilty plea lawyers. I hate to say it. There are also trial lawyers, you know, and as a lawyer, you have to guide your client to the correct decision if they have a case that potentially winnable, that has viable defense, and they’re not being offered a reasonable deal to resolve it, say, to withdraw the charge or very recruit sentence, that lawyer s and you should be taking it to trial.

And some lawyers simply guide their clients towards guilty pleas, and you don’t want to be doing that, so you need to check their online experience. Ask around. Ask if you know other lawyers in that city who don’t practice criminal law, for example, ask them about that lawyer, because they’ll know the reputation.

That’s a good way to find out. Make a phone call to a couple non-criminal lawyers in that locality and say, What have you heard about this particular lawyer? If you know people who’ve had them, look at their online, look at the reviews, and ask the lawyer that question.

So you’ve got to research. The fourth is not researching their reviews or reputation. Certainly, testimonials that are valid on Google speak volumes. When you look at someone’s testimonials on Google, it’s kind of a trip compared to TripAdvisor, but you’re going to see if the trend tends to be, you know, 4.5 and five star all along, and they look like legitimate reviews, and there’s dozens and dozens of them, and they’re online, and they’re on their website, that’s a pretty good indication they’re a decent lawyer. I mean, there’s obviously going to be some one star reviews you can’t please everyone, and you might be a little bit suspicious, actually, if there’s not some one or two stars that someone’s been practicing for a long time.

So you have to be very careful check that out. It’s just another factor to look at.

Fifthly, not trusting your gut instinct, when you meet with that lawyer during and before the decision to even hire them. Are they communicating well? Are you trusting them? Do they come across well? Are they explaining things? Do you understand? Are they communicative? You’ve got to sit down and trust your gut, not doing that if they’re making you uncomfortable, don’t hire them. So you might want to interview a few lawyers, talk to them, go through all these issues, and you know, ultimately, trust your gut. There is a whole checklist of factors that you have to go through.

You want to choose a specialist. You want to trust your gut. You don’t necessarily go with the highest fee. You want to check out the courtroom experience, and you want to check out the reviews, and if you have the capability of asking around of other lawyers will know. Ideally, if you happen to know a Crown Attorney, let’s say you’re friends with a Crown Attorney, that’s going to be a nuance but let’s say you are in that city or another city, ask them about that lawyer, because they’re going to give you an honest opinion you’re a friend. So, do all these things, don’t make these mistakes. You’ll be hiring the right lawyer for the job that who knows what the heck they’re doing, and you’ll have a much better result with your case then hiring and making those mistakes that many people do while choosing a lawyer.