How To Choose A Lawyer

        So you have been charged with a criminal offense.  How do you choose a criminal defense lawyer in Milwaukee, Green Bay, or any other city?  This is not like choosing a lawyer for your divorce or choosing someone to make out a will for you.  This is a serious decision with your life and your liberty at stake.  There is four points that you mainly want to focus on when choosing a criminal defense attorney.  The first point is you want a lawyer that specializes in criminal law.  Not somebody that is a general practitioner.  Not somebody that splits their practice into multiple areas.  Criminal law is a highly specialized area of law.  So whether your case is a drug crime, a sex crime, a DUI or an OWI; the law is so complicated that you have to specialize if you want competent representation.  The second thing that you want to focus on is whether or not the criminal defense attorney has a track record of success.  You want to know whether or not they have had serious jury trials.  Specifically, you want to know that they have had criminal trials in your area with the type of crime that you are charged with.  You should check them out and do not be afraid to ask them questions.  The third thing that you want to focus on is whether or not they are aggressive.  A lot of defense lawyers will say they are aggressive.  You have to use your own judgment of whether or not they are actually going to be aggressive.  By aggressive, I mean someone who will literally interview every prosecution witness against you.  They should provide you with all the evidence so you can make the decision about how to handle your case.  They should follow up developing their own witnesses and doing their own investigation.  That is the only way that you are going to be able to go to the prosecutor and ask them to dismiss a case.  You must bring something to the table.  The only way that you are going to win at trial is if you can bring something to the jury.  Otherwise, all that will be left is the cop’s  story as well as all the witnesses that the state or federal court has brought against you.  The final thing to pay attention to is cost.  Obviously a criminal defense attorney is going to cost some money.  Don’t make the mistake of going to a cut-rate criminal defense lawyer.  There is a lot of them out there and what you are largely going to end up with is just a warm body next to you in court.  If you have been saving for a rainy day, I assure you when you have been charged with a crime, it is raining.  Be very careful about this decision and think about these four factors.