Ten Excellent Questions To Ask A Denver DUI Attorney During Consultation
DUI arrest can get just anyone in disarray whether experienced or not. It gets even complicated when you are charged for the offense. So many thoughts would obviously run through your mind as to what next to do given the huge consequences and penalties that could trail the arrest or charge. One thing that should not escape your pool of thoughts is consulting a Denver DUI attorney. Yes, you need an experienced lawyer to get you out of the situation especially as a first time DUI offender that knows nothing about the proceedings or severity of the offence.
Consulting a DUI lawyer is good, but asking the right questions to help you solve your problem is even better. Although an experienced DUI lawyer is supposed to ask you an array of questions to know which way to come to your aid, you must also be prepared to ask him some questions to have a sound knowledge of the situation you are in, learn basic things you have to know about your lawyer and gather insights on how to comport yourself in a DUI court amongst others. We have therefore in our professional knowledge selected the list of top ten questions we think you need to ask your DUI attorney on any consultation as highlighted in the following subheadings.
Background and Experience
The secret is finding a good attorney to handle your case. Then you shouldn’t settle for the less. You have to dig into his background as well as professional experience as especially relating to your case.
- Questions like school attended and qualification level,
- Lawyers’ certificates of practice,
- How many DUI cases he has handled and percentage wins, if he has worked with prosecutor on your type of case and others are very important.
They will help you in making a decision either to buy his service or otherwise.
Case Assessment
You are not supposed to be carried away with background checks on your DUI attorney. He would definitely be able to answer any of those questions correctly with proves as he would already be used to it. However, you have to be sure he can handle your case. This is why case assessment questions are really tangible and important after you are impressed with his background and professional experience information. Questions regarding DUI case assessment is really important because before an attorney would be able to give feedback about your case, he must understand the charges and evidences against you. First, listen to the questions he asks you, answer them truthfully and directly, and then you could also ask him question like;
- What would you recommend? A guilty plea, plea agreement possibility or trial?
- What factors work in my favor and what factors work against me?
- What can I expect at the different stages of the process as you have highlighted?
Case Management
If your attorney has impressed you again, it is not all yet. You have to evaluate his ability to manage your case. They themselves use the term case management to describe how well they would handle your case. Therefore there is absolutely no issue with you digging into that. You have to be clear about the behind the scenes logistic and be sure there are no misunderstanding between you two. Question like;
- Would you be available to represent me or someone else would work on my case?
- Who would represent me in court and who do I call with questions?
- Who do I contact, how do you prefer to be contacted and how regularly should I check back for updates?
All these will ensure there are no frictions or misunderstanding between both parties as to what the logistics of the case would be. You would obviously not talk to someone else during consultation and suddenly see another person to represent you in court. All of those would have been sorted out between you two.
Legal Fees
The attorney is obviously not going to be doing a charity job representing you. There must be a fee structure for his services. However, you must keep in mind that securing the service of a DUI lawyer can be expensive, and that each of the law firms have their billing systems. Most common are the hourly fee and flat fee. Hourly fee pays the attorney for every hour spent on your case and a flat fee covers the lawyer’s time. Most times, these fees do not cover for everything. You therefore need to be clear on how your attorney’s billing works. Questions like;
- What payment method, what kind of related expenses and estimates would I have to pay?
Would do to sort the billing conditions out.
There are of course many more questions you could ask your DUI attorney to ensure a smooth relationship between you, but these are considered basic and really important.
