Posts Tagged Lakeville criminal lawyer

Criminal law in Minnesota is different from other areas of law, and that is important when considering who to hire as your criminal defense lawyer.  When you seek a lawyer for personal injury, or wrongful termination, employment issues, or other lawsuits, the question is most often “do I have a case?”  Your consultation involves a fact exploration to decide if you have a good case to begin litigation.  Attorneys often are paid out of settlement or damage, so their fee is dependent on the outcome When you are charged with a criminal offense,  and consult with a criminal defense lawyer, circumstances are very different.  It means there is already a case, and it has a court file number, and the State has a lawyer, and that means you need one too.  You are facing the most serious consequences a government can impose.  Jail.  Prison.  The collateral consequences of employment, licenses, etc. are also on the line. A good criminal defense lawyer charges flat fees.  That means, you pay them immediately, and they handle the case from the beginning to end, so you are paying in advance for future work.  That doesn’t mean the fee isn’t refundable.  It simply means that you are giving you criminal defense lawyer security to handle the entire case because they have to stick to it.  While this seems perhaps strange or risky, there is a reason behind it.  A criminal defense attorney does not need to determine whether litigation can be started.  It already has, and there is a lot of work to do quickly.  And if you are facing a criminal charge, the outcome is either (1) Conviction, (2) acquittal, (3) dismissal (4) plea to lesser charge.  Negotiating these outcomes, or trying a case to a jury, is time consuming, and requires a criminal defense lawyer with a reputation for jury trials.  The trouble of a jury trial, and the chances of the State to win or lose, really drive the result of a case.  Even if a trial doesn’t happen, aggressive representation, negotiation, and motion practice, and the clear threat of trial,  are all necessary for a criminal defense lawyer to achieve the optimal result.  A common mantra at The Law Office of Alex DeMarco is “a good lawyer prepares to beat a case, prepares for trial, but also prepares to lose.”  A savvy defense lawyer must always be prepared for trial, but must also be prepared for sentencing if they lose.  If a case cannot be won, sentencing itself is also an important phase that can make the difference between sitting in a cage, and staying free. The other reason for flat fees is that a criminal defense attorney cannot charge a fee for a specific outcome, and cannot withdraw from the case without a motion hearing before the court.  This is because criminal law involves constitutional rights, and the very freedom of a person.  So a criminal defense lawyer is very much bound to you until the very end of the… Read more {+}