Timely Legal Advice: Avoiding Last-Minute Hurdles
When should you hire a 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 just talking about when you should hire an attorney in your case.
So, the no-brainer answer is as soon as possible. And I get that that might seem like a very self-serving answer for, you know, coming from an attorney. But there are genuine reasons why it’s always going to be better to make sure that you have counsel as soon as possible in the legal process.
Why Timing Matters in Legal Proceedings
It doesn’t matter if you’re facing a misdemeanor, a felony, a paternity case, or a civil lawsuit. It doesn’t matter what it is. You want to make sure that you have an attorney. Right now, I’m going to focus more on the criminal side, though, because this has been coming up lately.
We’ve had a few calls coming in where people are wanting to hire us, but it’s just a little bit too late in the game for us to do anything. So we had one recently where we got hired on a misdemeanor, and we were hired quite literally at the point where it was either we’re going to plea it or set it for trial.
The Consequences of Delay
For whatever reason, it, you know, a few hearings had been passed. The case has been pending for a few months. And unfortunately, this client was just out of time. The court was saying, hey, you’re either going to plea or set it, fish or cut bait. I’m not giving you any more time to figure it out.
In those types of situations, it limits your attorney’s ability to figure out exactly what they can do to help you. And it limits the amount of time that they have to be able to work on your case. But more than that, it also gets more expensive, not just on the misdemeanor side, but on the felony side as well.
The Importance of Early Legal Involvement
We have we’re having this happen to us a lot in our felony side as well. So many times we get clients that call in because they’re they’re being charged with a felony offense, and they’ve already passed preliminary hearings. So they’re half of the case is already over with.
And we’re already at the half now where it’s it’s it’s jury trial time. There’s no you know, it’s past prelim. There’s no more real than negotiating. It’s it’s it’s time to prep for trial. It’s time to figure out our witnesses. It’s time to have our investigator go and interview people who might be, you know, relevant, helpful to the case.
Planning to Avoid High Costs
It’s time to figure out our evidence, determine whether or not there was a confession, if the confession was coerced, all of that. There are a lot of steps that go into it after the preliminary hearing stage. And that’s why, at that point, that’s when a lot of law firms are going to say, OK, it’s time to go ahead and talk about our trial fee that needs to get paid.
And that fee is very, very expensive. I mean, for felony felony jury trials, you’re looking at a minimum usually of 15000 or more. So it’s absolutely in your best interest to get an attorney hired in as quickly as possible.
Take Action Now: Schedule a Strategy Session
Do yourself a favor. Consult with an attorney as soon as you possibly can. And if you don’t think you can afford an attorney, ask the court for an affidavit to fill out to request that an attorney be appointed for you.
If you have questions about this or if you’re involved in the criminal proceedings and need to determine your current status and remaining time, please don’t hesitate to give me a call. My name is Carl Birkhead. I’m a Tulsa family law attorney with Wirth Law Office, and I want to help you make law easy. Contact me today for a low-cost initial strategy session at 918-879-1681.
