Criminal Defense And Arrest What To Expect From Your Attorney

By Author: Jane Cooper
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A calamity has happened, your world is falling apart and everything is topsy- turvy; the reason for all this is you have been charged with a crime and have been arrested. The grounds for the arrest could be as simple as you being guilty of committing the crime, or the police have got the wrong guy. Well just telling the cops they have the wrong guy is not going to get you off, you will have to go through the process of being arrested, contacting your criminal defense and arrest attorney to post bail and then building a case to prove your presumed innocence.

For someone who has never been arrested for a criminal offense in their lives you will probably have absolutely no idea of what to expect from your criminal defense attorney. You may have a good idea about criminal proceedings from the numerous TV shows you have watched, but that’s the Hollywood version!

Use the information in this article to understand what you can expect from your attorney:

You need a lawyer who will provide you with an ethical defense that is high octane on the activity scale. The lawyer should adhere to the laws ...
... of the State and country and take all possible action within the boundaries of the law to defend you to his very best ability, sparing no action to get your innocence recognized and have you acquitted.

As an officer of the court, your attorney is bound by the oath he took to defend you and if he fails to do so ethically and actively he can be dismissed and also disbarred by the court.

If you feel for whatever reason that your criminal defense attorney is not taking reasonable steps or is not sufficiently active on your behalf to have you acquitted, you will have to petition the court to allow you to change your attorney. An attorney who does not follow up with witnesses by interviewing them and taking their depositions, which can alibi you during the time of the crime, when you were allegedly committing the crime, or if he does not follow up on obvious leads, is proof that you are not getting the best defense.

Full disclosure: quite often we are naive enough to believe that a criminal defense attorney can do whatever he thinks is best and go ahead and make all the decisions. While it may be true that he knows more law than you do, he is under obligation to provide full disclosure to you as his client. This rule is in place to protect the rights of the person being represented and to allow them to make their own decisions about the defense strategy planned by the lawyer, irrespective of his opinion.

Let us try to make this point a bit clearer, it is an important one. Your attorney may want you to plead guilty to an assault charge at the trial; you on the other hand knowing full well you were not even in the vicinity when the crime was being committed prefer that he argue the case in your favor, showing evidence to prove your innocence.

Your lawyer has to abide by your wishes and not make his own decisions.
About Author:
Jane Cooper writes about Houston criminal defense lawyer and DWI Houston.