How do I select a good criminal defense attorney?

February 2013 will mark the start of my fourteenth year as a criminal defense attorney.  I spent the first four and a half years, after graduating from Cornell Law School, working as a state prosecutor, both in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Atlanta, Georgia. The last eleven years, I have defended individuals accused of all types of crimes.  During those fifteen years, I worked an average of seventy hours a week, and saw my fair share of justice and lunacy. 

If you have been arrested and/or charged with a criminal offense, you are about to enter the arcane world of criminal law. My first piece of advice in selecting a good criminal defense attorney is similar to the advice offered in selecting a good attorney: Have a trusted family attorney, or family friend that practices law, refer you to a criminal defense attorney. If you do not have such a resource, then you need to take heed of the following advice.

When searching for an attorney you should be focused on two things: energy and experience.  You need to find an attorney that possesses both.  You want to avoid attorneys that have graduated from law school in the last three years, because while they may have a lot of energy, their lack of experience means they will be learning to practice law with your case.  You want to avoid attorneys that have graduated more than fifty years ago, because while they may have a ton of experience, they are often unable to return phone calls or stay awake in court. 

Criminal defense is a cash business. All good criminal defense attorneys get paid up front. Why?  The answer is simple.  First, if the client is in jail, and cannot make bond, a payment plan will rarely work.  Second, on the more serious cases, if the client pleads guilty to jail time, or losses after trial, he will be incarcerated, and will either be unable, or unwilling, to pay his attorney. Because it is a cash business, criminal defense is fraught with what I refer to as the pretenders, the prevaricators and the pusillanimous.

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