Why Is It So Important To Have An Attorney To Fight The Charges, Instead Of Just Rolling Over And Pleading Guilty?
It is never recommended for anyone to just try to go in there, represent themselves and say, “I plead guilty”. In almost every situation, there is something that a defense attorney can do. Being represented by a public defender would much rather be better than to try to represent themselves. If they can afford a private attorney, they should go with a private attorney. An attorney can see things in a case that other people on their own would not see.
Hiring the right attorney and hiring an attorney that knows what they are doing, the one that focuses on DUI, it can absolutely make all the difference. It can literally lead to cases being dismissed, it can lead to charges being reduced that would not happen if someone just said, “Well, I feel like I did it, so I’m just going to go in there and take care of it myself”.
Simply going in and saying “I plead guilty” will only result in a long prison sentence and several thousand dollars in fines and fees, and will have an impact on your life ahead for years. By hiring an experienced DUI defense attorney, you can literally save so money and so much jail time. You can also save money that you would have lost on insurance and on the ignition interlock device and your license being revoked. It can literally save people thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars to hire the right attorney. Oftentimes, it is better to hire a private attorney than to go with a public defender when possible. Public defenders are attorneys who graduated law school, they passed the Bar but there really isn’t any incentive to do well for the client other than a personal sense of satisfaction.
Public defenders do not get paid very much; they do not get paid for winning, they do not get paid for fighting, so there is really on incentive to put a lot of work into a case, there is no incentive to win. Whether they win or lose or tell the client that they should take a plea agreement, the public defender gets paid the same. The public defender system is a necessary system and is wonderful in some respects. It is great for indigent people, people who cannot afford to have access to an attorney. However, it’s better that someone have a private attorney if they can afford one.
Should Price Be Considered A Factor When Deciding To Hire A Private Attorney Or Going With The Cheapest Guy Or Doing It Yourself?
There are very high priced attorneys out there and there are some that are not very good attorneys but they charge a lot. There are some good attorneys that don’t charge very much. There are some brand new attorneys that have never had a client before that don’t charge very much because they want to get their experience off of your back. That doesn’t necessarily make them bad but it doesn’t necessarily make them good.
Then there are attorneys that charge a lot of money, upwards of $20,000 for misdemeanor DUI and they are really not good. They charge a lot because they know that people will think that they are very good at what they do because they charge a lot. However, people need to do their research and find the right attorney, not just the one that looks good on a billboard or the one that a friend said was good.
Every case is different, so a good experience for someone with a lawyer may not be a good experience for someone else. A lot of it depends on the specific facts to that person’s case. Just because one lawyer was able to do well with a burglary charge doesn’t mean that same lawyer knows how to properly handle a DUI case.
In many DUI cases, people simply decide to go with a criminal defense lawyer, or even a family lawyer instead of a DUI lawyer simply because they think that lawyer is experienced, or if that attorney was recommended by someone. Without a DUI defense attorney, you are most likely going to have a bad experience. The thing to note is that there is a big difference between criminal lawyers and a DUI lawyer.
DUI cases are so much different than every other type of case and it is such a specialized field that someone really needs to do their research and find the right DUI lawyer, not just what appears to be a good attorney or someone who has a lot of years of experience.
If you need to Hire A DUI Attorney To Fight A DUI Charge In Arizona, call the Law Offices of Brian D. Sloan for a FREE Initial Consultation at 480-900-0384 or 602-900-0384 and get the information and legal answers you’re seeking.
