Are You Willing To Pay For Your Criminal Defense Lawyer To Gain Experience?
Posted on Nov 24, 2011 10:25am PST
How would you like to be paying for your lawyer to get the necessary experience to properly defend your case?Every Attorney's website claims to have experience regarding their chosen area of law. I always find it curious when a lawyer claims to have all this knowledge when they have been practicing law for less than five years or when they fail to mention in their website that they recently graduated from law school.
The reality is that law school does not do a very good job in preparing a lawyer to become a criminal defense attorney. A legal education is mainly about abstract concepts and theory. Rarely, does a student get the practical experience of handling a case from start to finish with a mentor or instructor.
Unlike the medical field the legal field does not have a residency program to start working on cases. Once a lawyer passes the bar they can start working on cases. I have always felt like my three years as a prosecutor served as residency in criminal defense.
If major corporations are not willing to pay law firms to train their new attorneys why should you hire a novice to defend you in a criminal case like sexual assault when facing the possibility of going to prison. While I understand that a "baby lawyer" may be less expensive I would think your freedom is worth spending the extra money to get the defense you deserve.