Monday, July 11, 2011

Denver criminal defense lawyer / free consultations deconstructed

Most Denver criminal defense lawyers offer some sort of initial consultation free of charge. Does that mean we're just giving our services away? A client could go to 30 consultations, ask the right questions, and have all the information he needs to defend his own case without paying a red cent to a lawyer? Unfortunately, this isn't exactly the case.

The initial consultation frankly has more to do with money than anything else. The lawyer wants to figure out if he can help you out with your legal issue, what a fair fee will be, and whether you can pay that fee. If the Denver criminal defense lawyer gets the idea that he can't help you with the legal issue, or that you can't or won't pay his fee, he'll probably advise you to go elsewhere. The "free consultation" is really just a quick way for him to get a look at the case and decide exactly what to quote you. The legal advice you get will probably be a pretty bare bones explanation of what's going to happen in the case (and what the lawyer can do for you--basically that is a sales pitch).

None of this is going to be remotely useful to a defendant stepping into a court room against a trained and experienced prosecutor. The defendant will basically be totally lost in this situation. The consultation provides a nice road map for the case, but little in terms of actual advice. However, there are ways the client can use the consultation to his advantage.

Since the lawyer is interviewing you, you should be interviewing your Denver criminal defense lawyer. Make sure he's organized. Check what he says against what other lawyers tell you (you should still do a few consultations, just not 30). If one is way out of line with the others, he's probably wrong. Ask what he's going to do about your case (just don't ask him to guarantee an outcome, that's unethical). In the end, the consultation probably isn't as great as it seems, but it can be a very useful tool for the prospective client.

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