What Does A Criminal Defense Attorney Do?

In the United States, criminal defense lawyers deal with the issues surrounding an arrest, a criminal investigation, criminal charges, sentencing, appeals, and post-trial issues. Often an attorney will specialize in a niche within criminal defense , such as drug defense or DUI defense. They could work for the local, state, or federal government or they could work for private law firms. The defense lawyers could also have their own practice and handle multiple criminal cases.

Now, I'm a New Orleans criminal defense attorney. I represent clients that have criminal charges in New Orleans. The types of criminal cases that I oversee include but are not limited too;

• DUI - DWI- Someone being charged with Driving Under The Influence or Driving While Intoxicated.
• Public Intoxication- Someone being charged for being Intoxicated in Public.
• Disturbing The Peace- Someone being charged for Disturbing the Peace.
• Criminal Trespassing- Someone being charged for Criminally Trespassing.
• Lewd Conduct- Someone being charged for Lewd Conduct.
• Criminal Damage To Property- Someone being charged for Criminally Damage someone's Property.
• Simple Battery- Someone being charged for Simple Battery.
• Domestic Abuse Battery- Someone being charged for Domestic Abuse Battery.
• Traffic Charges- Someone being charged for a traffic ticket.
• Expungement- Someone being charged for Expungement.

All criminal defense attorneys defend you against criminal charges. While the criminal charges may differ, criminal defense lawyers have one job, defend those they represent.

Now, a criminal defense lawyer can be contacted directly by the defendant or it can be assigned the case by a court. There's a number of different criminal defense lawyers that are public defenders, these lawyers are paid by the public defender’s office. They are appointed cases by local, state or federal courts.

Some criminal defense lawyers are hired by private firms. Some criminal defense lawyers have an independent legal office (like mine in New Orleans). In this case, I run my own office, other criminal attorneys can do the same.

You also have public defenders, they usually a high case load due to the referral process and the pay coming from individuals other than defendants.

In some cases, a court may appoint a private lawyer to take on a specific case.

There is other roles of the criminal attorney once someone hires a criminal defense attorney. Those include but are not limited too;

• Jury Selection
• Plea Bargains
• Trial Preparation
• Trial Procedures
• Sentencing