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Benefits of a Prince William County Criminal Attorney

When weighing the benefits of a Prince William County criminal attorney, it is important to consider what the attorney could do to help you. Not all attorneys are the same, so it is important to find one that meets your needs as a defendant. For more information about how an attorney could help, reach out to one today.

How Prince William County Handles Cases

Prince William County is a large and growing jurisdiction. Because it does not have the larger courts, is not one of the larger court systems, and is not of one of the larger Commonwealth attorney’s offices, the court is always busy.

There are logistical and impractical issues such as the difficulty in parking in Prince William County near the courthouse. The crowded conditions cause differences in the way cases are handled. It is common for serious cases, especially felonies that are set for trial, to have a much longer timeline than counties with a shorter docket or less business in the jurisdiction. Cases are often set out for several months for trial and some individuals who are incarcerated wait for almost a year before they go to court for their trial date.

Benefits of Hiring an Experienced Attorney

Because Prince William County is a smaller jurisdiction, there are benefits to hiring a local attorney. While there are no written local rules in Prince William County, there are differences in the way the local court handles things, and because the local rules are not written, the only way to have any familiarity with them is through experience in the jurisdiction. There are disparities in the way the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office in Prince William handles cases and what they may be willing and able to do with various types of cases. It is immensely beneficial for someone to have an attorney who is experienced working in Prince William County with the prosecutor’s office and the court system in the locality.

Solo Practitioners Vs. Law Firms

One of the main benefits of hiring an attorney who is associated with a law firm as opposed to a solo practitioner is the amount of resources available to the attorney. Some law firms have multitudes of resources that allow attorneys to conduct investigative queries. It is uncommon for firms in Virginia to have private investigators, but with some firms, that resource could be available. However, that is not true with all law firms. Some firms do not invest in resources to improve representation, so it is important for accused people to weight the benefits of a Prince William County criminal attorney.

How an Attorney Could Help People Who Are Under Investigation

There are several important ways a defense attorney can assist someone who is being investigated but who has not yet been charged. The first and most important of those is to inform the individual of their rights and the procedures in the courts in Prince William County.

There are also cases where it is favorable to begin contact with law enforcement from the onset of the investigation. Sometimes, the attorney might reach out to a possible victim in a case to make sure if anything that could be done to make them whole is done as soon as possible.

There are many ways in which it can be helpful to have an attorney working with one to try to prevent charges from being filed. The most important way an attorney can be helpful to someone who is being investigated in a criminal investigation is to inform them of their rights, in particular, the right to remain silent. However, the benefits of a Prince William County criminal attorney do not stop there.

The attorney acts as a buffer between the accused person and the police because it is almost never a good idea to interview with the police. As soon as the authorities know a person has an attorney, they know they must go through the attorney and may not question a person in a setting when their rights are not being advocated. It isn’t unheard-of for a police office to give up an investigation and to never even bother to return phone calls from an attorney who calls to let them know their suspect has legal representation.

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