An Affordable Criminal Defense attorney who is experienced and aggressive in orchestrating your defense important to helping you avoid being ran over by the criminal prosecution team.
Affordable v. Cheap
Law firms typically have a staff that includes partners, associates, support staff, process servers, and various other human resource expenses. Expenses also include furniture, computers, tech support, investigation costs, expert witnesses, travel expenses, copy machines, and numerous other expenses that add up. It is simply put, Criminal Defense Firms run on money. In our firm, Attorney Fees and Cost Deposits are two different aspects of a contractual agreement. Fees are exactly that, for he attorneys time to defend you. Costs can be paper, paralegal time, investigators, experts, and many other related costs that arise during the defense of a criminal case.
Our firm prefers to separate the two. It is for our clients protection. We are affordable, and by separating the two items, we remain affordable. A cheap route would be to write in the contract that the client is responsible for the costs, then not charge a cost deposit. This leaves the client, possibly, believing the fees will cover everything, only to learn they have to pay more later. Some cases result in a refund being given of the cost deposit, or he unused portion. The worst case scenario is when the case needs more funding, none having been collected as a cost deposit, in order to properly investigate, interview witnesses, serve subpoenas, or hire expert witnesses and none is available. Some attorneys include it in their fees, leaving their discretion as to whether to take money out of their pocket from the fees and hire an investigator. Too many times they are reluctant to do this, and it results in a defense that lacks a key components necessary for the best possible results.
Can you afford to retain a top criminal defense firm? The answer may surprise you, you probably can. Before I was a lawyer, I saw the top names in criminal defense and assumed it would cost $50000, $60,000 or even $100,000 just to retain the attorney for a case. I was wrong, it can be surprisingly affordable to hire the best criminal defense firms to represent you in your case.
If you choose to retain an attorney, you should not let the price dictate which one you hire. For an analogy, imagine if you were in need of reliable transportation to get to work and perform normal chores and duties of life. There is public transportation system, but owning your own vehicle would be more productive and convenient for you. So you decide to purchase your own vehicle. You calculate your need based on several factors, such as gas mileage, price, comfort, reliability, and prestige. Then you look at the local dealerships, small time car lots, and roadside improvised sales areas, craigslist, and the internet. You find a list of vehicles that fit your needs, and fall within the price range. Next, you decide which one to buy. What you would not do, or should not do as the final step is make the decisions based solely upon price. It would be a horrible mistake to look for the lowest price automobile, absent any other need based factors, and blindly purchase that car. You may be out the initial money for the automobile, tax, registration, and then have repairs that make ownership of the vehicle not only financially impossible, but also reduce the utility of owning it to a negative value. The same could happen with a cheap lawyer.
You should determine what your needs are. Do you need an experienced and reputable homicide attorney, an Expert DUI Attorney, and Attorney with a strong scientific background, or one with specialized legal knowledge. Then you should make a list of attorneys who seem to fit your specific need. After that, you should visit each of them, and see which one(s) fit you specific criminal defense needs best. It is important to find an attorney that you communicate well with. Then, the final piece of the equation is whether or not you can come to a financial arrangement with that attorney. You will see that no matter the price, hiring the wrong attorney can be a larger detriment than benefit.
If you are in need of a criminal defense attorney, Jonathan Rooker has free consultation appointments available for certain offenses.
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