Selecting a Trial Lawyer

When you are charged with a serious crime you want to hire a trial lawyer—a lawyer whose training, experience, and talent are geared toward making him the best he can be at standing up for your rights in front of a jury.

First, if you intend to fight your case—whether to assert your innocence, or to hold the government to its burden of proof—it should be obvious that you want to do so with a trial lawyer who is trained for that purpose.

To draw a medical analogy: You don't want to lie down on the table for open-heart surgery if your family's general practitioner is wielding the knife; you want a heart surgeon working for you.

Second, even if you think you don't want to fight the case—you want to make a plea bargain with the government—a trial lawyer is going to know what a jury might do with your case (so that he can help you decide whether to plead or fight).

You want the surgeon (not the GP) to tell you what the risks and benefits of surgery are before you decide whether to try it.

They say that when your only tool is a hammer every problem looks like a nail. The trial lawyer has more tools in his box than the plea bargain lawyer: he can try the case, or he can work out a deal. The plea bargain lawyer doesn't have any tools other than plea bargains—every case looks like a guilty plea. If the plea bargain lawyer can't pressure you to plead guilty, he has to refer the case to a trial lawyer.

The surgeon can prescribe pills, but the GP can't operate.

The trial lawyer, unlike the plea bargain lawyer, is going to be credible when he tells the assistant U.S. attorney that the case is going to go to trial if a better offer is not made.

The U.S. Constitution gives you the right to a jury trial. It is significant that the drafters of the Bill of Rights gave you the right to a jury trial, but not the right to a plea bargain.

A gentle warning: lots of lawyers claim to be trial lawyers, including some that have not had a jury trial in years, if ever. How can you tell if someone actually tries cases? Ask him what being a "trial lawyer" means to him. Ask him about actual cases, actual trials, and actual results. The bottom line is that you need to feel comfortable with whom will represent you.

"First, if you intend to fight your case—whether to assert your innocence, or to hold the government to its burden of proof—it should be obvious that you want to do so with a lawyer who is trained for that purpose."