If you have a friend in jail, we can get him out today. You may not even know where he is. We can locate him, determine his bail and get him out today.
When you go to a criminal court arraignment (the first hearing after arrest) the first thing you notice is that about 99% of the people who go before the judge do not have an attorney. They are subjecting their very freedom to a complicated and highly specialized system and they are going to get steamrolled over. If they qualify for a public defender, they end up with an overworked and underpaid lawyer whose main goal is to clear his cases, not to get you the best possible results. That public defender shows up every day for work in that same courtroom working with that same assistant district attorney. Clearly this is not who should be representing you no matter what the charges are.
The smartest single thing you can do in a criminal case is get your own lawyer. Just having a professional attorney representing you shows the District Attorney and the court you are serious about your defense and that they don't have another run of the mill case. Also, the government attorneys looking to prosecute you don't want to talk with you. When you hire an attorney we serve the very important role of representing your cause to the District Attorney and optimizing any possible plea.
Getting you the best possible plea is not everything we do. If need be, we will take your case to trial. The government's "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard is the toughest burden of proof there is. We will hire investigators, find and interview witnesses, bring motions to suppress evidence, ask for lineups and do whatever else the law permits to put on the strongest possible defense we can and raise reasonable doubt with the jury. Your firm has 30 years of experience as litigators and we will put every possible resource into keeping you out of prison and clearing your record.
