Battling for one client at a time – Fairfax criminal lawyer

Battling for one client at a time is the only way to proceed in criminal court

Battling for criminal defense clients can be seen either as a great opportunity to help people and protect civil liberties, or else as a constant struggle against an overly unjust criminal justice system. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I choose the first approach, in that a successful trial lawyer, martial artist or warrior has no choice but to accept the battleground conditions and rules of combat as they exist, until they can be changed.

Fairfax criminal lawyer on working for change while battling before the change takes place

Change of course is needed in so many ways in the Virginia and American criminal justice system, including weeding out judges who do not belong on the bench; retiring unjust prosecutors and police; addressing crime at its roots rather than warehousing convicts with excessive incarceration; heavily decriminalizing drugs; and legalizing marijuana, prostitution and gambling.

As criminal defense lawyers, we see on a daily basis the problems that need addressing, and do a public good by spreading the word about those problems and the changes that need to be made. At the same time, a criminal defense lawyer can go nuts expecting change overnight, rather than battling for one client at a time during the existing state of affairs.

Criminal defense lawyers benefit from supporting each other rather than seeing each other as competitors

Criminal defense lawyers need to hang together lest they and their clients simply hang. I truly appreciate my colleagues who repeatedly take the time to bounce ideas with me as I try to figure out a particularly challenging nuance in battling for my client, whether it be dealing with the peculiarities of a particular judge or prosecutor, overcoming some difficult evidence, or finding a legal way around a challenging law. In turn, I make myself available to them for the same. An ultimate here is when lawyers take a few hours from a weekend morning to join case brainstorming and practice sessions, where truly magical ah-hahs and development can develop and grow.

Opening up to criminal defense colleagues can be magical rather than risky

While trading victorious war stories has its place among criminal defense lawyers, only by sharing our concerns about personal and case challenges on the path to victory do we get important feedback and ideas from our colleagues, even if doing so invites uncomfortably sobering responses. We are here effectively to defend our clients, and not to feel all pampered like at a weekend spa.

At the Trial Lawyers College, it was scary for me at first to bare my very soul to people I had met only days before. Of course, by our all doing the same with each other, we could then proceed to be our real selves in helping ourselves and each other reach quantum leaps in becoming better people and lawyers for our clients.

An effective criminal defense lawyer achieves through battling well without needing to bare fangs

Plenty of prosecutors act nasty to criminal defense lawyers, whether to offset feelings of insecurity; to mimic more experienced misguided prosecutors; to try to please their superiors, complaining witnesses or police; to try to scare a criminal defense lawyer to accept the prosecutor’s settlement offer; or for a whole host of other reasons. The criminal defense lawyer who responds in kind is misguided. It is not weakness, but instead strength, to maintain powerful calmness at all times in battling for criminal defendants, no matter how nasty the prosecutor or judge gets. To get angry weakens the fighter.

Fairfax criminal lawyer Jonathan L Katz pursues your best defense against felony, misdemeanor, drug and DWI prosecutions. To discuss your case with Jon Katz, please call his staff at 703-383-1100 to schedule a confidential consultation.