10 Questions When Hiring a Texas Criminal Attorney
10 Questions To Ask When Interviewing a Texas Criminal Attorney:
1. Legal areas of focus? (the fewer the better)
2. Years of practice? (at least a few years of active practice)
3. Solo practice or associates/partnerships? (teams are generally better for brain storming)
4. Completed number of jury trials? (an average of at least 2 completed jury trials per year of practice shows basic client advocating)
5. Completed number of contested pre-trial motions (average of at least 4 completed contested pre-trial motions per year of practice shows basic client advocating)
6. Also practices Federal Criminal Law? (Federal Criminal Law is generally opposite of State Criminal Law as its more legal and academic and less factual driven and thus shows more experience in extracting deep legal defenses irrespective of facts)
7. The number of completed post conviction appeals including number or oral arguments before any Appellate Court? (demonstrates an ability to dive into legal issues and knowing how legal issues can affect actual trial)
8. The number of completed post conviction Writs of Habeas Corpus (these are the “last ditch effort” after all appeals have been exhausted and thus shows the ability to academically and factually dive into a case even after numerous court losses)
9. Would the current case involve a strategy of using an Examining Trial; Grand Jury Testimony; Grand Jury Evidentiary Submission; and Subpoena Pretrial Issuance including how many of these have they completed (these are seriously under utilized tools that attorneys tend to ignore due to the speed at which they must be completed and the time associated with preparing such tools - but an attorney who uses these clearly establishes very aggressive strong advocation for their clients)(Note - All these tools are described in other sections of this blog)
10. Would a prepared Defense Trial Notebook be helpful to them? (accepting a well prepared Defense Trial Notebook shows willingness to listen and consider your concerns, knowledge and position)(Note - All these tools are described in other sections of this blog)