Choosing a DUI Lawyer Part 2
Just to recap, in part 1 of this series we talked about public defenders and why they are not a good choice when it comes to defending someone against a drunk driving charge. If you haven’t read Choosing a DUI Lawyer Part 1, I would suggest you read it before going on to part 2. In part 2 we are going to talk about “General Law Practitioners” and “Criminal Lawyers” and what you need to be aware of if you are considering one of these options.
General Law Practitioners
You never want to hire a general law practitioner to represent you against a DUI charge. When someone calls themselves a general law practitioner they are basically saying, “I have a little knowledge about a lot of areas of law and a lot of knowledge about very few areas of law”.
General law practitioners know very little if anything about DUI law and DUI defense. DUI law is considered by many lawyers to be one of the most difficult areas of law to practice because the laws are so complex and vary from case to case. So when it comes down to it, all a general law practitioner can do for you is to hold your hand and walk you through the system without much skill or competence on their part.
The only real difference between a General law practitioner and a public defender is that in most cases the general law practitioner was at least smart enough to start their own practice or to get hired by a law firm.
So if you decide to hire a general practitioner to try and save some money, the old saying of “You get what you pay for” definitely applies here. Don’t expect to see any reduction in the charges and most certainly don’t expect to see a win. If you are thinking this way, you are just fooling yourself and you are basically throwing your money away.
Criminal Lawyers
All criminal lawyers handle DUI cases and therefore have some knowledge about DUI laws, some more than others. If you hire a criminal lawyer make sure the lawyer has experience handling DUI cases, you don’t want a criminal lawyer who has never tried a DUI case in court. You don’t want to be his practice case if you know what I mean.
Like I said before, DUI law is very complex and takes years of practice to be successful at it. If you stand a good chance of winning your DUI case, then you want a criminal lawyer who has a proven track reord for winning DUI cases, you don’t want a “rookie DUI lawyer”.
So just to recap, you do not want to hire a general law practitioner to fight a DUI charge, you will just be throwing your money away and they are more than likely going to recommend that you plead guilty to the charge. A criminal lawyer will be a good choice as long as that lawyer has a proven track record of defending clients who have faced DUI charges and has a winning record for his clients of having the charges dismissed or reduced.
In part 3 of this series we are going to talk about “Dump truck lawyers”. I know what you’re thinking, what the heck is a dump truck lawyer? I will explain it in part 3 and let you know how to avoid hiring one.