I met with a client’s family today in a post-conviction case. The conversation quickly turned to how the trial lawyer had been selected by the family - and I decided to use this blog post to share some of my thoughts on how (and how not) to pick a criminal defense lawyer.
To start, please know that this advice is based on over 15 years of full-time criminal defense practice, both as a public defender and a private practice attorney.
Here’s some background information about the practice of criminal defense law generally that might be useful. While I work in Maryland, the same logic applies if you’re in DC, Virginia, Pennsylvania, or anywhere else.
Today we’ll cover an important trend in criminal defense practice. You probably have heard that criminal law is a specialty, but it is important to know that the defense of serious criminal cases is quickly becoming a specialty within criminal practice. Why?
The answer is simple. Preparing a criminal defense case properly takes far more time (and skill) today than it did a say 10 or 20 years ago. DNA evidence is now nearly universal in serious cases; add to that phone “dumps” (with police able to easily download the contents of just about any phone with a warrant), Facebook and Instagram posts and messages, cell phone location data, Ring camera footage, and of course body worn camera footage from police themselves.
Gone are the days when many first-degree assault or robbery cases featured a few dozen pages of police reports, photographs, an identification, and medical records. Instead, a “simple” case might have hundreds or even thousands of pages of discovery - police reports, phone evidence, body camera and much more.
Why does this matter when picking a lawyer? Because you should look for a lawyer who 1) will spend the time to review all this evidence and 2) knows what to do with it, how to challenge it, and how to potentially use it to your benefit. This logic applies to both trial lawyers and post-conviction counsel.
Unlike doctors, lawyers aren’t typically trained in specialty practice in law school or through a formal training program. There are exceptions - tax lawyers often obtain a masters of degree after finishing law school and many law schools offer some form of clinical education. But most lawyers learn what they need to know on the job. You can be trained through a public defenders office (probably the best way to learn) or in a prosecutors office (often a way to get lots of trial experience very quickly) or you can be trained by another lawyer in private practice. When you are looking at a lawyer’s background, take a look at how and where they were trained.
A trial lawyer needs to have at least a basic familiarity with things like DNA, phone evidence, and video evidence, and feel comfortable working with these and other areas in the courtroom. That means many otherwise skilled lawyers who are not criminal defense specialists will be at a disadvantage, and it suggests that hiring a person who focuses on criminal defense work is an important choice.
Here’s our second issue - geography. Ideally, you want a lawyer deeply familiar with the county or city where you or your loved one is going to court. For the most serious cases, however, the most important part is to find someone with the right experience. It is usually better, for example, to hire a lawyer who has handled many homicide cases than one who has not - even if most of that experience came in a different county.