When hiring a criminal defense attorney especially you have to understand that first off, we’re litigators. We’re people that go into court and we stand up and represent the client. We give a voice to a person who is not supposed to speak during a criminal procedure. And so, the first thing is you have to feel comfortable that that person will stand up for you and be able to advocate your points. So it has to be somebody that’s willing to listen. One of the things that I hear complaints about is that well the attorney didn’t listen, he just said this was a regular DUI case or this is a regular assault case. Well there is no regular case, every case is unique because every client is unique. They’ve sought out an attorney for a reason and it’s important that that person feel that connection. And if you don’t feel that connection then you might want to go looking to somebody else.

So most of my firm is focused on one area of the law and that is criminal law. I focus on one area because that way I become an expert. And the other difference is, is that I’m the only lawyer. It’s always interesting when somebody calls and like I’d like to talk to the lawyer. Well, I am the lawyer and sometimes I’m the secretary and sometimes I answer the phone and all the times I take calls from my clients and return phone calls. I also believe in having an in person consult with the client before they hire me for two reasons, one is so I can size up to see if this is a case that I am capable of taking but also, for the client to be able to size up. And so that difference is important in the fact that a lot of firms they start hiring associates.

And there are what we call routine matters in criminal law, a continuance, or a waiver but truly and honestly, they’re only routine to us as attorneys they’re not routine to the client sitting on the other side of the table. To them it’s their life. And so, that simple continuance that might take 10 minutes and a 20-minute drive might seem simple to me but it’s not to them because they don’t understand the process. They hired me to understand the process and not only for me to understand the process but for me to communicate the process to them. And so many times I’ve heard people say oh, my attorney doesn’t communicate with me. They don’t return phone calls. They don’t return e-mails. And I get frustrated with that because that’s the easiest part of our job is to be able to return phone calls and answer questions. And most the questions are questions I would consider routine but again, as I mentioned earlier in this answer there’s nothing routine to that person or that issue.