During the course of an ongoing criminal case, a criminal defense lawyer is required to fulfill a number of important roles. He or she is responsible for defending the person who may be facing charges of criminal activity. The criminal defense lawyer will be speaking on behalf of the defendant.
Arguing the case is the primary role of a criminal defense lawyer
A criminal defense lawyer may be conducted by the defendant directly or may be assigned to the case by the courts. A number of criminal defense lawyers are working as public defenders and are paid by the public defender’s office. They are assigned cases by the local, state or federal courts.
Criminal defense lawyers are also hired by private firms and some of them even have an independent practice. The wages paid to public defenders are on the lower side and they also have a higher workload. In some cases, the court reserves the right to appoint a private criminal defense lawyer to deal with a specific case.
Interviewing the case is also the role of a criminal defense lawyer
The criminal defense lawyer will be trying to get as much information as he or she possibly can when they have an opportunity to meet with their client. They will be asking specific questions about the case to understand the kind of defense they can present and also consider the strengths and weaknesses of the case. The entire procedure would require a careful and thorough interview with the defendant.
Investigating the case
Investigating the case is also one of the roles assigned to the criminal defense lawyer after they have conducted a thorough inquiry of the case with the defendant. They must determine the best ways of having their client acquitted and this procedure also includes questioning the police about the methods they used during their investigation of the case.
The information gathered is used to build a comprehensive defense in order to safeguard the best interests of the defendant. Any expert witnesses who may be used in the case will also be interviewed by the criminal defense lawyer about the testimony they may provide and the evidence that may be presented during the trial.
A criminal defense lawyer also has the right to review the case of the prosecution before it is presented to the jury. This right provides the criminal defense lawyer to find any loopholes in the case against the defendant and gives him or her an opportunity to find evidence which may refute the case of the prosecution by hiding an independent lab or an expert to verify the evidence related to the matter.
The criminal defense lawyer will have a number of roles other than the ones mentioned above and will include the following:
- Analyzing the evidence.
- Continued contact with the defendant.
- Jury selection.
- Participation in the trial.
- Plea-bargaining.
- Sentencing.
Clients who are charged are required to place full faith in the criminal defense lawyer they have hired or has been assigned to their case because it will be the only option available for them to defend themselves successfully. They should not be trying to provide their lawyer with false information because it will be detrimental to their case.
They should rather be trying to cooperate with the criminal defense lawyer because he or she will be making every attempt possible either to have them acquitted or at least receive the least possible penalties in the event of a conviction. The role of a criminal defense lawyer is to safeguard the interests of the defendant without being judgmental to achieve the best possible results.