San Jose Criminal Law Office

Question: When should I hire a criminal attorney?

Answer: If you are arrested and charged with a felony, the court requires you to have an attorney. If you are in jail and cannot make bail and cannot afford to hire your own criminal lawyer, the judge will appoint the Public Defender when you go to court. If you are not working, or are only working part-time and not making enough money to cover your basic expenses like rent, food, utilities, the court will appoint you the Public Defender. Public Defenders are lawyers who only take criminal defense cases appointed by the judge. In Santa Clara County and other large counties in California, there is a large Public Defender’s Office to represent people charged with criminal offenses. Although the attorneys are supervised to make sure each attorney has enough experience to handle the type of crime with which you are charged, Public Defenders also have high caseloads, are often very hard to reach, and cannot spend the time on each case that you would like.

If you are not in jail or unemployed, the court will tell you that you must hire your own attorney. This often leaves a person unsure of how to locate the best criminal attorney for the case. Do you ask a friend? Check the phone book? Look on the internet? When looking for an attorney in a criminal case, you need to find an attorney with experience in the type of case that you are facing, whose practice is dedicated to criminal defense practice. You do not want the same attorney who prepared a will for your cousin or your brother’s divorce to handle your criminal case. Except in small towns, most attorneys specialize. Maureen Furlong Baldwin handles only criminal defense cases.

You need to be prepared to discuss the whole problem that led up to your arrest with your attorney, so the attorney can best decide how to defend your case. A good criminal attorney will always look at your case in terms of whether the prosecution can prove the charges filed, and be able to assess whether you should go to trial, if there is a chance to get the charges dismissed and how to do it, or if a “plea bargain” would be the best course. An experienced criminal defense attorney will be able to see the whole picture. An experienced criminal attorney will let you know up front what sort of an investigation the case needs for you to win, and if there are legal issues such as uncharged crimes that could be land mines for the defense.

An experienced criminal defense attorney will not agree to take every single case in every single jurisdiction, just to take your money, but will let you know if he/she is a fit depending on your time constraints, the attorney’s caseload, the jurisdiction where the case occurs, as well as your budget.

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