Criminal Attorney - Lawyer

In criminal cases attorneys mostly defend clients accused of a felony crime. Criminal Attorneys need to be experienced trial lawyers giving their clients keen insight into all aspects of any criminal litigation and assisting them in making the right choices for a successful defense of their felony case. Top care must go into the preparing of the defendant’s defenses in the pre-trial phase of any case with special emphasis on all discovery material handed over by the prosecutor and evaluations of any post arrest statements made by the accused and witnesses.

If you've been accused or arrested, you cannot afford second-best representation. Choose from our list of certified criminal defense attorneys here.

 

 Increasingly, in the United States in particular, lawyers have taken over functions that used to be (and in some countries, still are) performed by other professionals, such as the civil law notary or even by non-professionals.

 The role of the lawyer can vary, in some countries, this person is often required to lead or manage criminal investigations. In the UK this task is the responsibility of the police forces.

Colloquially, in the United States, lawyers are called attorneys. In fact, almost anyone can be an attorney; (see for example attorney-in-fact) strictly speaking, an attorney is similar to an agent, a person who has been formally empowered by someone else (a "principal") to act on behalf of the principal. Lawyers are "attorneys at law," authorised to plead cases on behalf of their clients.

  

What constitutes the practice of law?

A person who has a Juris Doctor (or LL.B.)but is not admitted to any bar is not a lawyer. However, federal courts often allow law students to act as "certified student attorneys" after the satisfactory completion of their first year of law school and the completion of particular second- and third-year courses such as Evidence. In systems that follow the English practice a person who has completed the course of study but is not yet admitted to the bar may practice under supervision in Articles of Clerkship usually called an Articling student. Otherwise, engaging in the kind of work customarily done by lawyers, without a valid, current license to do so, is the "unauthorized practice of law." In some jurisdictions, the definition of the practice of law is quite strict; persons have been successfully prosecuted for publishing do-it-yourself will forms and for representing special-education children in federal proceedings as specifically allowed by federal law.