The Importance of Choosing the Right Criminal Lawyer
If you are charged with a criminal, drug or tax evasion offence, your entire future may well be at stake.
These charges cause enormous stress and can have dramatic consequences. The most minor drug charge can prevent U.S. travel – for life. A shoplifting charge can cost a professional career. Anything with the word “Sex” can ruin a reputation or break up a family. At the other end of the range, serious charges increasingly carry minimum sentences which must be imposed if there is a conviction, or Appeal Court sentencing guidelines which call for significant punishment. Alberta is tough on crime and you may be unpleasantly surprised at the potential downside you face.
Unfortunate though you are to be facing a charge, however, you are among a fortunate few if you can consider hiring a senior lawyer to defend you. The choice of lawyer is vitally important. You are likely to say very little in public or in Court; your lawyer speaks for you. You may well be called upon to make complex strategic decisions; you must utterly trust your lawyer’s advice and be convinced that he has only your interests at heart. Many, indeed most criminal cases are capable of having their outcomes dramatically improved or worsened, according to the decisions made by the person charged. I am convinced that the most important of those decisions is the decision about which lawyer will prepare and present the case in Court.