This is the fourth blog in a series about how to hire a criminal defense lawyer. Read my introductory comments, how to decipher lawyer advertising, and how to hire a lawyer when you don't have the money for one.

Most people hire the wrong criminal defense lawyer for the wrong reason.  In my next several blogs I will focus on them all (Money, Advertising, Prior Results, Perceived Expertise, “Former Prosecutor,” and Connections.); today we'll look at Prior Results.

Prior Results

The lawyer you want to hire for your vehicular homicide case just won a vehicular homicide case.  Probably a bad move.  No two cases are the same.  Cases are resolved in certain ways because of many factors:  a good jury, change in witness testimony, weak evidence, lazy prosecutors and even luck.   I've won cases I thought I would lose and I've lost cases that I still can't understand why I didn't win.  Your case is your case, not the other client's case.

The other aspect of this advice is this:  do not fire your lawyer because he couldn't get you a bond.  Here's some news:  if you didn't get a bond, it's because the judge ruled that you weren't eligible, or are such a flight risk or danger that no lawyer could have helped.

Those clients who fire their great lawyer because they didn't get a bond are short-sighted.  Sure, if your lawyer shows up for the bond hearing unprepared, or it's clear he or she is not competent to handle the case, dump him.  Know, though, that when you go to the next lawyer, he will know that you've already fired one lawyer.  So with the prosecutor and so will the judge.