In order to find the best Virginia criminal lawyer for your case, you’ve got to really do your research. There are a lot of great tools now that can assist people in finding lawyers such as Avvo or Google. You want to find someone who is local, who has experience in your area. There’s just no substitute for those things.
You want to find someone that’s going to get invested in you right from the beginning and who’s going to give you answers right from the beginning.
The most important thing in finding a lawyer is finding someone who you trust and can develop a rapport with. That kind of collaborative team approach makes a critical difference in preparing. I think those are the things you need to do when you’re looking for an attorney.
What Should I Look For In A Criminal Defense Lawyer Who Might Take My Case to Trial?
There are definitely some things you want to look for. You want someone who is has a lot of experience in that area of the law, you want someone who practices criminal defense law and really that’s all that they do. It’s not to say that there aren’t some good attorneys out there who do more than one thing. But the reality is that there’s just no substitute for experience. You also want someone who enjoys a great reputation.
How do you find out about someone’s reputation? There are a lot of resources online that are going to help you to find out what someone’s reputation is, just like if you were picking a doctor or, a restaurant that you want to go to for dinner. There are sites that you can go to where you can read reviews and find out what other people have had to say.
You want to find someone who really knows the environment that they’re in from the police officer to the judge to the clerk of court. You want to identify someone who you trust, who you have a rapport with, someone who’s responsive, someone who listens.
There are a lot of attorneys who won’t give you a lot of time either on the phone or in the interview and they’ll kind of immediately tell you what’s what. I’ve had many experiences where someone’s come to me and said past lawyers or others I’ve talked to don’t really listen to me, they’re not interested in hearing what I have to say.
And I think it’s critically important to know what people have to say to hear their story, to know the details of their case, and really importantly to know what their goals are. You want someone who’s competent who’s got great experience and reputation, someone who can guide you through this process, but also someone who’s going to listen, someone who’s going to respond, someone who’s going to take your phone calls, and make sure that your questions are answered throughout the process.