Finding the right criminal defense lawyer is important when you’re facing legal issues. Whether you’re accused of a crime or seeking legal support, having a skilled lawyer can significantly impact your case’s outcome.
However, the process of hiring the right criminal defense attorney can be overwhelming, particularly when you are already under stress. In this guide, we’ll take you through the essential steps to help you find and hire the best attorney for your specific needs, using a simple story illustration.
If you have ever questioned the importance of having the best criminal defense attorney, you might consider hearing Melissa’s story.
The Scenario
Melissa does not wear shoes. Her defence lawyer says that she should get some as she will need them for court next week. Melissa swapped places with her boyfriend that fateful night after the accident and before the police arrived. Both her and her boyfriend had been drinking heavily. The alcohol had really started to kick in and take effect when they swapped, or she would never have agreed to it. At the time, she was too drunk to care. It was her boyfriend’s idea to save his own skin. It was for Melissa to regret it afterwards, when it was discovered that someone had been seriously injured as a result of her boyfriend’s decision to drive, rather than book a taxicab to take them home.
Melissa sinks her toe into the deep pile of the defence lawyer’s carpet to try and comfort herself after the realization that there is every chance she will go to prison, losing her job as a lifeguard and having her freedom taken away from her. With the police seeming to have no evidence to prove that Melissa was not driving, after she made it obvious that she was, and with her boyfriend continuing to plead his innocence after cruelly having them swap places that night, Melissa desperately seeks the help of her DUI lawyer. That is, her Driving Under the Influence lawyer, who is now the one charged with thinking of something that can help save Melissa from a fate as awful as imprisonment.
As it stands, unless any new evidence comes to his attention, all her defence lawyer seems to be able to do for her is to present her in a favourable light in front of the jury, and courtrooms are always such dingy places. He may be able to come up with some mitigating circumstances by the time of the trial, but the judge may not be sympathetic to any of them.
The Solution
The solution comes as Melissa’s defence lawyer observes the soles of her feet as she leaves. The police reported that used wet wipes were found stuffed in the side pocket of the passenger side of their vehicle and that fresh mud was found on the pedals of the driver’s side.
The sighting leads Melissa’s lawyer to say: “Miss Adams, you couldn’t have been driving because you wet wiped your feet before stepping into the vehicle, when you first entered the front passenger side. You would never have operated those pedals with your feet muddy. In contrast, your boyfriend’s shoes had remained muddy for the entire time that he drove.”
“That’s it, you’re so clever,” Melissa exclaims, before staying behind to talk more with her defence lawyer, as she would at school when she was asked to stay behind.
“It’s a pleasure”, her defence lawyer concludes, as they part company for the last time before the trial. While she was on her way back home, Melissa was grateful for her lawyer and thought that it was a good idea that she chose the lawyer from a good criminal defense law firm in Sacramento, thanks to her uncle. But she couldn’t delve on it anymore as the present predicament jolted her back into reality. Although now, she is at peace knowing that a resolution is soon at hand, wherein her innocence will be proven.
The Conclusion
Those wet wipes the police paid little attention to, confirmed that Melissa never put that mud on those pedals. Her lawyer even managed to prove that her boyfriend had coerced her into swapping places, rather than the alcohol having been to blame for potentially the worse decision she had ever made in her life. So, Melissa is successful at trial, or rather her defence lawyer is, in proving her innocence. Does this mean anything? Yes, it does. It means that when you are in such a position, you might want to contact a reputable lawyer (such as the ones at Stewart Salwin) who have professional experience dealing with DUI cases and excellent reviews in handling them. Now, her boyfriend is the one to stand trial for seriously injuring someone while drunk in charge of a vehicle. Melissa is to continue in her job as a lifeguard that she so loves, which rather than nearly take away a life, last week saved one.
If you have gotten yourself into a similar kind of a mess as Melissa, I hope that you gained something from reading her story. Thanks to her defence lawyer, there was a happy conclusion for the person who deserved it.