It is a fundamental, and potentially costly mistake, to avoid hiring a criminal defense lawyer immediately on being arrested. An attorney knows the ins and outs of the law and can prevent you from making mistakes, like issuing statements, that could potentially cause you to spend time in jail. An attorney also knows all the tricks arresting officials, officers, and prosecution attorneys will use to elicit a confession and end their case as quickly as possible. In other words, it is you against the entire system, making it imperative that you have a lawyer on your side.

An attorney should be your first call when you are placed under arrest. It is easy to get sentimental and want to call a loved one with your one phone call. Unfortunately, unless they are an attorney they will not be of great assistance to you. In many cases people that are arrested are not immediately charged with a crime, so if you have not been formally charged, we can work on your release.  This also gives us the opportunity to review the charges they want to bring and potentially have them reduced before they are even filed. There is a brief window of opportunity between being arrested, and charges being filed, where we can make a difference. You need to act fast to get us involved in order to protect your best interests.

Very often prosecutors do not want to take the case to trial and would prefer to plea bargain a deal. This is very apparent in low-level cases, where taking the case to trial would be an extraordinary strain on the state making it more likely that the district attorney will see a deal. In the event that some sort of plea bargain is put on the table, you want an experienced criminal defense lawyer sitting at the table with you, reviewing all the options. As a lay person, it is extremely unlikely that you have the knowledge and understanding of the inner workings of the criminal justice system, or the experience to know what a good deal looks like.   They may be offering a deal because they don’t know if  a “not guilty” verdict will be issued at trial. Having us at the table from the beginning allows us to consider the arguments they may make and offer the prosecuting attorney an incentive to negotiate. Lawyers are trained negotiators, and as such we will be seeking the best scenario for you while arguing to get you out of the situation with little to no penalties.

Communicating with a prosecutor can be difficult as they can use anything you say against you. Since you don’t know the evidence they have or what their goals are it can be difficult to know what not to say.  This makes it easy to accidentally incriminate yourself.  Never go it alone when you have been charged with a crime.  As a criminal defense lawyer, we can help to protect your rights.