Understanding Your Right to Choose Your Lawyer
Can you change your lawyer? Hi, my name is Carl Birkhead. I’m a Tulsa criminal attorney with Wirth Law Office in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I’ve been practicing family and criminal law for almost eight years now, and I want to help you make law easy by talking about your right to counsel, and especially your right to choose your counsel.
So I’m talking specifically in this instance about for when you’ve privately hired an attorney. So, you haven’t used a public defender; instead, you’ve gone to a law firm, handed over cash, signed a contract, set up a retainer, and hired private counsel.
Can You Change Your Lawyer
In these situations, 99 times out of 100, you can change your attorney at almost any time. There are a few exceptions, like if you’re going to jury trial tomorrow, the court’s probably not going to let you switch out your attorney. At the very least, I’ve had plenty of situations where either myself or the opposing counsel right before trial have filed a motion to withdraw because the attorney-client relationship broke down or because the client didn’t want my services, and the court flat out said, sorry, this close to trial, I’m not letting you out, figure it out, and be ready to go.
So there are some times when the court won’t let your attorney out, but those are few and far between. If you’re not right up against the gun or up against that deadline, you’ve got time to find your attorney. It doesn’t matter if it’s a family case, civil case, or criminal case; you have the right to competent counsel.
Your Right to Competent Counsel
You absolutely can fire your attorney and find a better one if you’re not really loving how it’s working out with that attorney, which is fine. Not every lawyer and not every client is going to get along together. Not everyone meshes together.
Sometimes the attorney-client relationship just doesn’t work with that particular team-up, and you need to find a different attorney who’s going to work for you and help you get to where you needed to go. So yes, you have the right to change your lawyer at almost any point during the proceedings.
Proceed with Caution
I would just add a word of caution there. Do not become the client or the party that has a revolving door of attorneys. Courts are familiar with this. Sometimes you’ll have someone who will get an attorney, not like them, not like their advice, something like that, fire them, get another one, and just rinse and repeat through seven or eight lawyers. Eventually, the court’s going to say Enough is enough.
So be careful and use this with caution. If you have questions about this or if you’re looking for a change of counsel, definitely give me a call. My name is Carl Birkhead. I’m with Wirth Law Office, and I want to help you make law easy.
Schedule Your Initial Strategy Session Today
Interested in discussing your legal options or considering a change of counsel? Contact me, Carl Birkhead, a Tulsa misdemeanor attorney at Wirth Law Office for a low-cost initial strategy session. Let’s make law easy together. Call me at 918-879-1681 today!
