Selecting the Best Military Defense Attorneys
In this post, I am going to talk to you about how to choose the military attorney that’s going to handle your case. Now, if you have been charged in the military, the odds are stacked against you. There is a very good chance that you are going to jail. The government is going to do everything they can to make sure that you go to jail and that you are kicked out of the military.
Court Martial Lawyers – Alexandra González – Waddington & Michael Waddington Attorneys at Law
Put together the best defense team
What you have to do…? And the only thing you can do is put together the best defense team that you can possible. If you don’t do that than your chances are very slim. Well, how do you go about putting together the best defense team possible or choosing a civilian or military defense attorney? You have to do homework. And I can’t stress how important it is that you do your homework.
I will give you an analogy. Let’s say your son or daughter is facing serious medical conditions… a brain tumor or something of that nature. And they have an 80 to 90% chance of not surviving this tumor. There is a procedure out there that you can have brain surgery done and there is a chance that you may survive. So, you have a 10-20% chance. That’s kind of what your chances are in many court martial situations.
You are not going to just go with any doctor, especially not a doctor that the army or some government agency gives to you for free. You get to try to find out if that doctor is qualified. And if you talk to that doctor and you learn from that doctor that who is going to operate on your son or daughter that the doctor has never done a surgery before or has a 100% failure rate at saving the lives of his other patients, you are probably not going to go with that doctor.
Diligence when picking your military lawyer
You need to use the same diligence when picking your military lawyer. A lot of military lawyers have a lot of self confidence and they will tell you how they will take care of you. They are the right attorney for the job. They are confident that they can get you a good result. You know, the confidence doesn’t win trials, experience does. Experience and skill!
There are few questions that you have to ask, either your military lawyer or any perspective civilian lawyer before you hire that attorney or you choose to go to court with that attorney. One of the basic questions that you should ask an attorney is about the success rate. You should ask them, “What are the results of the last 10 jury trials that you have did… that you did?”
The Best Court Martial Lawyers Have a Winning Track Record
If they haven’t done 10, then figure out what the last results were of any jury trials they did. If they have never done a jury trial then that’s a red flag that that attorney probably doesn’t have the experience to take your case to trial and get an excellent result.
When were these cases done?
Another thing you would want to ask that attorney, “When were these cases done? Where they have done it in front of an illicit panel or jury or an outside panel, where they are in front of the judge…”
You want an attorney that has at least tried… at least tried at a minimum 10 to 15 jury trials in the military system. Now, not every military attorney has done 10 to 15 trials. Lot of civilians haven’t done even 2 to 3 trials and gotten good results. But, you want to try to gauge how experienced that attorney is. But, a good starting point is 10 to 15 jury trials at a minimum.
Real Costs of a COURT MARTIAL Conviction and Discharge
The next thing you should ask the attorney is, “Of those… Of the last 10 clients you had, how many of those clients were retained? How many were retained and how many were kicked out of the military?” You know, one of the big things that’s going to affect you for the rest of your life is whether or not you get a discharge. A military defense attorney that is 0 for 10 in getting his clients retained is probably not the attorney for you. If you want to be retained, in much…Most people want to be retained.
“How Many Court Martial Case Have You Won?”
Now the other thing you want to ask the attorney is, “One in all the last 10 cases, how many those cases were acquittals, either partial acquittals or full acquittals. And then weigh and balance their experience against other attorneys that you talk to.
And other thing you want to ask the attorney is, “Of those past 10 clients that you had, how many of those clients were sent to jail? And of those 10 clients, what were their charges? And of those 10 clients what was their jail time?”
If you have an attorney who has never contested a case or in the cases that he has contested, he is 0 for 10 in getting…I should say, 10 in 10 in getting clients sent to jail for lengthy periods of time, then again weigh and bounce that attorney’s results with the other attorneys that you speak with.
Attorney’s relationship with the prosecution
Another very important factor is what is this attorney’s relationship with the prosecution, the SJA office? The SJA office is the General’s or the Convening Authority’s lawyers. Ask and find out, what their relationship is with these folks? If they go out drinking with them, if they are roommates with them, if they are best friends with them, if they plan on going to work with these individuals or they just left that same office… And now one minute through the prosecutor, now they will be your defense attorney, that is a red flag.
Call our experienced military defense attorneys for a consultation. Our military criminal defense lawyers have fought US Army court martial and administrative separation (ADSEP) cases in the United States and globally.
