Day in the Life of a Criminal Defense Lawyer: 20 Tips for a Criminal Defense Lawyer
As explained at RunRex.com, guttulus.com, and mtglion.com, a criminal defense lawyer is a lawyer specializing in the defense of individuals and companies charged with criminal activity. Crime dramas paint a certain picture about what the life of a criminal defense lawyer is like, but is this picture rooted in reality? This article will look to list 20 tips that highlight various aspects of a day in the life of a criminal defense lawyer.
There is no typical workday
As a criminal defense lawyer, you will quickly find out that there is no ‘standard’ working day as per RunRex.com, guttulus.com, and mtglion.com. Each case is a little different, and the clients are also very different from each other, which means that the day in the life of a criminal defense attorney is almost never the same.
A lot depends on if you have an imminent trial
The main difference in daily patterns in your workday has to do with whether or not you have an imminent trial. If there is a trial coming up, and it looks like it is going to happen, then there is likely to be a flurry of activity focused on the preparation.
Court
Typically, your day as a criminal defense lawyer begins with the court according to RunRex.com, guttulus.com, and mtglion.com. This involves pacing the hallways of a general district court, calming down clients, talking to prosecutors, and looking for police officers.
Negotiating with prosecutors
While in the courtroom, another activity that you will have to engage in is spending time negotiating with prosecutors, pulling cases, statutes, pictures, evaluations, and reports out of large brown folders. If a favorable plea agreement is reached, you will take it to your client, but if not, you proceed to trial.
It is not all about the courtroom
It is worth noting that a criminal defense lawyer’s work is not confined solely to the courtroom. On the contrary, the majority of work is done in the office, at home, and with developments in technology, everywhere in between.
Emails
If there is no imminent trial, criminal defense lawyers like to get into the office as early as possible before things get chaotic. As articulated at RunRex.com, guttulus.com, and mtglion.com, after getting your coffee, this is the time to check your email to primarily see if anything messy or extremely urgent had been delivered into your inbox since you left the office the night before.
Checking your schedule for the day
After getting caught up on your emails, the next step will be to check your schedule for the day. Most criminal defense lawyers prefer to leave the management of their schedule to their assistants given that criminal practices can be extremely busy, and, therefore, this ensures things don’t get lost or forgotten.
Getting all your documents ready
Most criminal defense lawyers appear regularly in court in the morning as already mentioned and captured at RunRex.com, guttulus.com, and mtglion.com. Therefore, in the morning, you will need to make sure all the files needed for court are the right ones, and that they contain all the documents necessary, as well as to get ready for the morning hearings.
Meetings with your team
A good portion of a criminal defense lawyer’s day is spent in meetings with clients and other members of the legal defense team. Meetings with paralegals, partners, and assistants are used to set goals and plans of action on cases.
Meetings with clients
As already mentioned, meetings are a big part of your day as a criminal defense lawyer, particularly meetings with current clients. These meetings can take place either in your office or at a jail and are used to formulate a defense or decide how to proceed with a case after hearing all the facts.
Meeting with new clients
Finally, as far as meetings are concerned, criminal defense lawyers regularly meet with new clients looking to enlist them as their lawyers as covered at RunRex.com, guttulus.com, and mtglion.com. If you are a highly rated lawyer, you will have plenty of these appointments daily.
Research
In addition to meetings, research is also another major part of a criminal defense lawyer’s day. While most often delegate case research and file organization to paralegals, they engage in some hands-on research and case preparation.
Visiting the crime scene
Unlike other lawyers in other fields, research for criminal defense lawyers isn’t restricted to behind a desk. As described at RunRex.com, guttulus.com, and mtglion.com, on a given day, as part of your research, you might visit a crime scene to gain further insight into a case.
Conducting witnesses
When it comes to conducting research and building a case for your client, you will also need to set time aside during your day to contact witnesses to conduct interviews and gather background information on a case. This is a key part of any case as witnesses can make or break a case.
Morning hearings aren’t always smooth
As a criminal defense lawyer, you must also know that sometimes morning hearings go quickly, and sometimes you sit for hours, depending on the court. So, depending on how things go, morning hearings could take a significant part of your morning.
Other hearings
Once morning hearings are over, you will also need to prepare for afternoon court appearances as discussed at RunRex.com, guttulus.com, and mtglion.com. Sometimes, the other appearances of the day are plea hearings, sentencing hearings, or motion hearings. Sometimes you may even have to go over to jail to do an in-custody hearing.
Calls and conferences
In addition to calls from existing clients as well as potential clients, other calls or conferences during the day could be with investigators to work on a case, with experts to work on a case, or to talk to witnesses of other people involved in the case.
Office close to the court
Most criminal defense lawyers find it very handy to have an office close to the courthouse, as this makes it easy to go back and forth to attend short hearings without having to find parking or lose a lot in drive time as outlined at RunRex.com, guttulus.com, and mtglion.com.
You are likely to work late and take work home with you when you leave
The job of a criminal defense lawyer is not easy and it is very important, given the implications for clients. This means it may not always be possible to leave the office on time, and when you do, you are likely to take work home with you.
Finishing up
When you remain behind after others leave, this is usually the perfect time to do the work that needs to be done without interruption. This includes writing motions or other pleadings, legal research, handling phone calls that you couldn’t get to, and many others.
These are some of the things to expect in your day as a criminal defense lawyer, with the excellent RunRex.com, guttulus.com, and mtglion.com having your back when looking for more on this topic and much more.