Your attorney, especially when it comes to a criminal case with all the things that are on the line, is pretty much your champion.  They're the ones that have your whole life story and your version of events.  With the police taking a very one-sided account of what happened and really trying to get you so to speak and really thinking that you're completely guilty and having a very negative view of you and giving that information to the prosecutors — who are the lawyers that prosecute the case — that puts you behind the eight ball from the beginning.

So, you need somebody to get in there that can tell your version of events, that's going to fight for you and assert all of your rights.  So, to me it's crucial that you have an attorney who has had success in dealing with the type of cases that you are up against. I also offer an attorney referral program.

You Need a Lawyer Willing To Fight For You

Trying to go with somebody who doesn't know you or your circumstances and who might be over-worked and just have too many cases themselves, is obviously not going to work for you.  You're going to need somebody that you specifically hired that knows your story and really has a strategy as to exactly how you want to handle your criminal case in Los Angeles, because we have to look at reality. We have to look at how strong the case is against you that the prosecutors have.

Is it a case that we're going to fight at a jury trial level where we're going to have to get all the evidence and investigate and set things up so that you can be in the strongest position to fight your case, or is it a case where the prosecutors do have enough evidence to convict you of the crime and now we have to do damage control.  We have to figure out how we can possibly get a lesser charge — how we can keep you out of jail or prison.

All of these cases are not the same.  But the bottom line is, you need someone who is looking out for you — who is fighting for you and trying to do everything they possibly can to get you the best result.  Unless somebody is keyed in and targeted to help you, things are probably not going to go the way that you want and that's a problem.

You need the case to go your way.  You need the case to be spun in a direction that puts you in the strongest possible position.  There's all sorts of things on the line — your freedom, your rights, your reputation, your criminal record, your future.  There's all sorts of rights that can lost if you are convicted of a crime, whether it be a felony or a misdemeanor.  Obviously, nobody wants to go to jail or prison.

You Need A Lawyer Who Knows Your Story

That is what your attorney is supposed to do for you — stand between you and some of those bad consequences that flow from a criminal case.  The first question becomes, how kind of high up are you on the ladder of potential problems and punishments.  The higher up you are, the more likely it is that you're going to get a very severe punishment.  The way to avoid that type of punishment is to get a criminal defense attorney who is just looking out for you — who knows your story and also knows what you must have out of this criminal case.

When I get these cases, I'm talking to my client.  I'm saying, here's where we're at.  Here's what we're up against, and then myself and the client decide what are the parameters of things that we must have.  Once we have that locked in, now it's my job to go fight for that — either to get evidence to support our plan or to get a mitigation package together for the prosecutors — to go meet with the head Los Angeles County prosecutors and try to get that resolved — what we must have.  That's my job.

That's what I have to do and that's what your champion has to do when you hire a criminal defense attorney. Criminal defense is not easy.  When you're charged with a crime, the prosecutors and the judge are not looking upon you kindly, so it's up to your criminal defense attorney to try to turn the tide in your favor and there's  lot of different ways to do that depending on the circumstances of your case.

You Need a Lawyer You Are Comfortable With

The bottom line is, you have to hire that attorney who you feel comfortable with when you sit down and talk to them — look face to face with them.  I always meet with my clients face to face and talk to them and go over their case with them and really get a feel for who they are as a person, what happened in their case and what we must have result-wise in order to keep their life intact and to deal with their criminal case the right way and get them out of the criminal justice system as fast as humanly possible.

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