Choosing a Georgia Criminal Defense Lawyer

A serious criminal matter is not the place for the cheapest answer or the loudest one. Marketing material — including this firm's — does not establish whether counsel can actually try a case. The questions that matter at the consultation are not the ones the firm volunteers. They are the ones a careful client asks.

I · Trial RecordHow many, and what kind

Ask how many jury trials counsel has tried in the last five years, and in what kinds of cases. Ask about felony trials specifically. Ask about trials in the court where the case is pending. Plea-mill practices and trial practices look identical at the consultation; they do not produce identical files, and they do not produce identical results when the State understands that the matter will be tried.

II · Willingness to TryReputation as leverage

A lawyer's reputation for trying cases is not a vanity consideration. It is the structural reason the State extends meaningful offers in some cases and not in others. A prosecutor who knows that counsel will try the case prices the negotiation differently from a prosecutor who knows that counsel will not. This dynamic is rarely discussed openly. It is real.

III · Forum ExperienceLocal procedure, judicial preference, prosecutor relationships

Ask whether counsel appears regularly in the court where the case is pending. The local judiciary in Douglas, Cobb, Fulton, Paulding, Carroll, and the surrounding metro Atlanta counties is not interchangeable. Local procedure, judicial preference, calendar practice, and the working relationships with the District Attorney's office shape what is possible in a case. None of these are abstractions; all of them affect outcomes.

IV · The First Thirty DaysA real plan, not a posture

Ask what counsel will do in the first thirty days. The answer should be specific:

• Discovery requests, by category and statutory basis.
• Preservation letters to identified custodians — surveillance providers, cellular carriers, third-party witnesses.
• Witness work — locating, interviewing, recording.
• Bond posture and the timing of any reconsideration motion.
• Suppression issues identified from the initial police reports and the body-worn camera, where available.
• Pre-indictment engagement strategy, where the case is in a pre-indictment posture.

"We'll see what the State has" is not a plan. It is a description of waiting.

V · Fee StructureWhat the fee actually buys

Flat fees, hybrid fees, and hourly arrangements all exist in Georgia criminal practice, and each has reasons. The question at the consultation is not which is cheapest. The question is which structure gives counsel the runway to do the work the case requires without re-negotiating at every stage.

Trials cost. Suppression hearings cost. Experts cost. Investigators cost. A fee that does not account for those costs is a fee that will need to be supplemented later, often at the moment the work needs to happen.

VI · CaseloadHow many cases is the lawyer carrying

Ask how many open serious cases counsel is currently handling. There is a number above which the work cannot be done well by any lawyer, however talented. The number varies by case type and by support structure, but it exists. A lawyer who cannot give an answer, or whose answer is evasive, has given an answer.

VII · CommunicationWho returns the call

Ask who the client will speak to between court dates. Ask whether the lawyer signing the engagement is the lawyer who will appear at the suppression hearing, conduct the cross-examinations, and try the case if it is tried. Asked directly, the answer is usually accurate. Not asked, the question is sometimes answered for the first time at the courthouse.

VIII · Warning SignsWhat to walk away from

• Guarantees of outcome. No criminal defense lawyer can guarantee a result, and the rules of professional conduct prohibit them.
• Pressure to retain at the first meeting without time to consider.
• Vague or evasive answers about trial experience.
• Disparagement of other lawyers as a substitute for discussing the case.
• A fee structure that does not survive a request to put it in writing.

The right question at the consultation is not whether the lawyer is impressive. It is whether the lawyer will still be the right lawyer the day the case is called for trial.

Related reading: About Kendall Teal, Serious Felony Defense, and Contact.

This article is general information and not legal advice. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.