Schaffer Black & Flores

The other day a prospective client came in for a free consultation.  After going over the details of his situation and answering his questions I quoted him a fee.  Now this was a fairly serious matter.  The prospective client had a very real chance of going to jail possibly even prison if convicted. He then pulled out a letter he received from an attorney offering to handle his case for $250.   Now I had estimated that his case was going to take 6-8 hours of work to handle properly (witnesses to check out, police reports to review, possible videotapes, some legal research, court appearances etc.).  I got thinking about that other fee.  Sometimes with flat fees its easy to lose sight of the analysis.  Ultimately the only thing a lawyer has to sell are his time and experience.  Bottom line with that fee there were only two possibilities: either that lawyer’s time was valued at $30-40/hr as a result of his inexperience or other factors(know any good lawyers that work for that amount?) or he was only going to spend an hour to 90 minutes on the client’s case (a scary prospect since he was an out of county attorney who would spend at least an hour driving to and from Frederick in the first place).  Either possibility is unsatisfactory for the client.

Eric

     Recently Bryon defended a client who had been charged with carrying a concealed deadly weapon.  They had a tazer in their car and after being stopped for an unrelated matter were arrested and charged with the offense.  In Maryland this offense carries a potential of 3 years in prison and a fine of up to $1,000.00.

     After sitting down with the prosecutor and the statute books Bryon was able to successfully convince the State that the tazer in this instance, while perhaps a weapon, was not a dangerous weapon within the pervues of the criminal section his client was charged under.  The charge was dropped without the risk of a trial.  Just the way we like it.

Of course we are biased but we at Schaffer, Black & Flores P.C. feel it is always in your best interest to have a competent, experienced lawyer on your side in all phases of a criminal proceeding.  An article in the Frederick News Post drives home the point and how one person will be paying for that mistake for the rest of his life. 

            The Defendant, who was represented by other attorneys, was convicted of a misdemeanor sexual offense.  At sentencing the New Post reported that he stated to the court that “I told my story to the sheriff’s office without a lawyer to save taxpayers money. I had no criminal intent in any way.  Some statements were very much taken out of context and were made after I was placed in what I would call a torture chamber environment.  I don’t think what I said was really me. I really didn’t defend myself.”

            When in doubt call a lawyer.  It’s one of the reasons why we offer free consultations.