Although white-collar crimes are on the decline, as suggested by the US Justice Department, bad luck doesn’t wait for anyone. If you are involved in a business or an organization that can attract the wrong kind of attention and triggers the investigation, you might have to appoint a white-collar crime lawyer to make sure that you stay away from the mess.
White-collar crimes have a pretty wide range – a non-violent crime with financial gain as a motif is a white-collar crime, which includes money embezzlement, money laundering, insurance fraud, identity theft, telemarketing scams, and more. These crimes usually occur in corporate industries and government organizations, or with people that deal with property and finance.
It is fairly probable that at some point in your life, you might need a white-collar crime lawyer. And if and when the time comes, you should know how to find the right lawyer to represent your case.
To help you out, here is an ultimate guide to help you hire the perfect lawyer.
Things to Consider When Hiring a White Collar Crime Lawyer
Finding the perfect attorney to represent you in front of law enforcement authorities is not easy. You can’t find the right person for the job just through references or visiting cards, you need to set up appointments with the lawyers you think are right for your case.
And when you are attending these appointments, there are some things you need to look for.
- Prioritization and Comfort
One of the most important things that a lawyer provides their clients is assurance and trust – and that establishes the client as the attorney’s first and foremost priority. An attorney should be capable of assuring you that they will put your needs ahead of every other matter, and that includes your comfort and convenience as well.
When you are sitting in that room talking to your potential attorney, you need to be sure that would be absolutely comfortable talking to them, and they’d be sensitive to your concerns and fears and would allow you to talk free in front of them. During the course of your case, you will be having some really confrontational and tough conversations with your lawyer, especially if the case is of white-collar crime, which is pretty technical. And you have to be comfortable with them in order to have those conversations properly and without any judgment.
If he manages to make you comfortable enough to talk about your problems in the meeting, he might be the right pick.
- Action Plan
When you are meeting your white-collar crime lawyer, you are going to know what’s about to happen to your case, and what your options are to drive the case in your favor. A good lawyer would be to tell you the general actions to take after hearing limited facts about your case and your side of the story.
Now, it is important to remember here that when you ask the lawyer about the action plan and what’s going to happen to your case, you shouldn’t expect them to strategize the whole thing for you. It’s a throwaway question. It only gives the lawyer the opportunity to explain their experience in white-collar crime cases. They would simply tell you the best case scenario after hearing a limited set of facts from your side.
There is another question that you can ask the lawyer to get a good grip on their experience, expertise, and professionalism. You could ask them the plan of attack on your case, and a backup plan in case the original plan doesn’t work out. The white-collar crime lawyer should be able to provide you the outline of the plan and a backup plan in which you are ending up getting good results of your case. You can also ask for advice on what can you do right then to set the plans in motion.
- Involvement and Determination in Your Case
It is the instinct of almost every client to ask a lawyer about what can be the result of your case. Without knowing the facts and figures, possible charges, history of the crime, and all the important stuff, it is difficult for a lawyer to provide an answer. However, if the lawyer gives you a definite answer about what’s going to happen with the case, they are probably not the lawyer you want to hire. That is because if the lawyer is giving a predetermined answer, it means they are probably not going to work enough and do their job with sincerity.
Now, you can ask multiple other questions to determine how involved and determined your lawyer is to fight and win this case. For instance, you can ask them about what the judge is like, what kind of prosecutor will be there, what people will be involved in your case, and other stuff – if your lawyer manages to answer them, they would prove that they know what they are doing and they are doing it best they can.
Do You Even Need a Lawyer
It wouldn’t be true to deny that the question ‘do I even need a lawyer?’ hasn’t crossed your mind. Everyone thinks about it before they actually hire a lawyer. And to some extent, you are right for asking this question.
You are not a professional, so there is a chance that you are scared of what might happen to you and you immediately hired a lawyer, while the prosecutor didn’t even have a case to charge you. These incidents often happen in white-collar crime cases.
Of course, a lawyer would never deny not taking your case and help you fight your battle, but a good one will let you connect the dots and figure out the A, B, and C of the case to determine whether you even need a white-collar crime lawyer.
If your potential lawyer says outright that you definitely need them, then they are keeping their interests above your interests, and it’s unethical and unprofessional. And that’s not the best white collar crime attorneyfor you.
Andrea Parker is a reporter for Zobuz. She previously worked at Huffington Post and Vanity Fair. Andrea is based in NYC and covers issues affecting her city. In addition to her severe coffee addiction, she’s a Netflix enthusiast, a red wine drinker, and a voracious reader.
