Facing a criminal charge and being required to go to Court is a stressful and sometimes even frightening experience. If you have been charged with a criminal offence, obtaining the services of an experienced specialist criminal defence lawyer to handle your case is crucial. It follows that you should do your research before hiring a lawyer so as to ensure that the lawyer you hire is the right lawyer for you and your case.
Accordingly, when you meet with a lawyer you should ask lots of questions. Below are some of the matters we recommend you ask about so as to assist you in working out if the lawyer you are meeting with is the right lawyer for you and your case.
1. Experience in cases like yours
There are many different types of lawyers. You should not assume that all lawyers have adequate experience to handle a criminal case.
If you are not a U.S. citizen and have been charged with an offence, it is really important that you get advice from a criminal lawyer that has also experience with immigration laws. You should therefore make sure that the lawyer you have engaged is a criminal immigration lawyer and not a lawyer who has a different type of expertise such as commercial law or property law.
Once you are clear that your lawyer is a criminal lawyer you should then make sure that they have experience with cases similar to yours.
By choosing a criminal lawyer who has handled cases similar to yours, you are ensuring that you will receive fulsome advice about potential defences you may have, your prospects of successfully defending the charges you face and the range of possible penalties if you plead or are found guilty.
2. The costs of their services
While you may find a lawyer with the right experience and who you feel comfortable with, you also need to ensure that you can afford their services. You do not want to hire a lawyer only to find out part way through your case that you are no longer able to afford the cost of their services.
Legal fees can be expensive. Some lawyers charge out at an hourly rate, some charge on a staged basis. However, a lawyer charges, it is important that you get a clear understanding of the total costs you can expect to incur throughout the entire time your case is before the Court. If you run into financial difficulties part way through your case it will cause unnecessary challenges for you, add to your stress and may mean you become unrepresented at a point in your case when having a lawyer is critical.
Your lawyer’s charge out rates and the costs you will incur throughout your case should be communicated to you at the start of your engagement so as to avoid a situation of having to change lawyers, or even worse, becoming unrepresented mid-case owing to financial problems.
Once you have engaged a lawyer you should, very shortly after you have met them, be provided with a cost agreement and a disclosure statement.
3. Are you the lawyer who will handle my case?
At your initial consultation you should find out if the lawyer you are meeting with is the lawyer who will be handling your case. This is especially important if you have conferred with a lawyer at a law firm with numerous criminal lawyers with different levels of experience who charge out at different rates.
By making this enquiry you will be able to ascertain what your options are so that you can make it clear to the lawyer you are meeting with of the level of experience of the lawyer you want and can afford to have working on your case.
Beyond costs and experience, it is also important that you are able to choose a lawyer with who you are comfortable working. Having a good rapport with your lawyer is really important, particularly if you are going to work with them over a long period of time.
Hiring a criminal lawyer who you trust and is available to answer any questions you have or address any issues that arise will make a difficult process more manageable and means you are more likely to achieve the best possible result having regard to the circumstances of your case.
4. Understanding what is involved in your case
Criminal cases are often complex and for those unfamiliar with the legal system, navigating Court can be confusing and overwhelming. Accordingly, before you hire a criminal lawyer it is important you have an understanding of the service they will provide.
In short, your lawyer should provide you with advice about the process and the evidence in the case against you following which they will need to take your instructions and work towards achieving the outcome you desire (and is possible) with a specific strategy in place.
To elaborate, as well as appearing in Court, your criminal lawyer does a lot of work outside of Court. This includes obtaining the brief of evidence, carefully analysing all the evidence in the case against you and providing you with advice about your prospects of successfully defending your case, the possible penalties you face and the process that will follow as a consequence of your instructions.
It follows that it is only once your lawyer has obtained your instructions that they can then take action on your behalf. Accordingly, your lawyer should make it clear to you that from the outset of your engagement with them that the only actions they can take on your behalf are those that they have been instructed to take after they have provided you with advice.
5. Hiring the right criminal lawyer
If it is not already clear that if you are facing criminal charges, hiring a criminal lawyer should not be a quick decision. It is important to ask as many questions as you can to ensure you choose an experienced lawyer who is able to guide you through the process and give you the best possible chance of receiving the best possible outcome having regard to the circumstances of your case.
At Stary Norton Halphen, our lawyers work exclusively in the field of criminal law and are able to provide you with sound advice to protect your rights and serve your interests. They have worked on criminal cases across all Victorian courts, including the Children’s Court, the Magistrates’ Court, the County Court and the Supreme Court.
Beyond that our criminal lawyers routinely work with barristers when required to do so to ensure you are represented by an expert who has the right skill set and knowledge to defend you. A criminal barrister is a specialist who is engaged by a lawyer to assist in a particular part of your case such as a contested hearing, a committal or a trial.
If you have any questions about your criminal case and want to talk with a criminal lawyer in Melbourne, contact the team at Stary Norton Halphen.
