Conviction avoidance calls for hard and focused work with your attorney, says Fairfax criminal defense lawyer

Conviction avoidance does not come from thin air. As a Fairfax criminal defense lawyer I know that even plenty of innocent people get convicted even when represented by among the best attorneys. Consequently, guilty verdict avoidance starts with overcovering risk. Of course the best way to avoid a guilty verdict is to avoid violating the criminal law and to avoid being associated with people committing crimes. Neverthtless, plenty of people still get prosecuted as a result of false reporting, conclusions of guilt by association, misidentification, and mistakes. If you are a criminal defendant, you have no choice but to give your defense your full fight. How do you do that? You start by obtaining the best possible lawyer for you and working closely as a team with that lawyer, including but not limited to covering uncomfortable discussions about how to deal with and transcend some of the most seemingly damning evidence.

How can I avoid a conviction if I am guilty?

Too many criminal defendants throw in the towel, even right away, rather than doing what they need to do when charged with a crime, which is to fight, fight and fight, while doing that smartly and as a team with the best possible criminal defense attorney for you. Too many criminal defendants who see a conviction as a foregone conclusion look for a lawyer who the accused expects will cozy up to prosecutors and police to obtain a favorable plea deal for you. What is wrong with the foregoing scenario? People do not persuade others by cozying up, schmoozing, and certainly not begging. Great negotiators obtain great dismissals or other settlements by approaching their negotiating partners with wills of steel, guts of fire, fearlessness of going to trial, full ability to do great at trial, and full willingness to go to trial. Yes, negotiations can also be assisted when the negotiating partner has faith in the credibility and character of their opponent, but if your Virginia criminal defense attorney is well enough known by police and prosecutors in the county of your prosecution, that may suffice for getting the word out about your lawyer’s abilities, fighting spirit, candor and reliability, rather than limiting yourself to seeking a lawyer who once endeavored to convict people while working for the Virginia commonwealth’s attorney’s (CAs) office that is prosecuting you.

If so many Virginia criminal prosecutions never go to trial, how to I find a Virginia criminal defense lawyer who knows how to get great trial results?

An irony about the improved settlement negotiations that an accomplished criminal defense lawyer can now obtain in such jurisdictions as Fairfax is that newer criminal defense lawyers in such jurisdictions are not getting as much trial experience as before. How, then, do you find a lawyer with great trial experience who can avoid a conviction at trial? One approach is to obtain a lawyer who was practicing when harsher-negotiating prosecutors’ offices were in place, thus making necessary going to trials more often. That is the case with me, where I more often told my clients to expect a trial than I do today under many circumstances in such a jurisdiction as Fairfax. Another approach is to seek a lawyer who is a former public defender lawyer or prosecutor, if they have had the benefit of substantial and beneficial relevant trial experience and trial stamina and resilience. I defended hundreds of criminal defendants as a public defender lawyer before returning to private law practice. A consideration to make before hiring a former prosecutor is the extent to which their heart is or is not into doing criminal defense, versus doing that work for a higher income or otherwise, together with the transition that must be made from being a prosecutor (with police resources available and the ability to beef up their trial by giving plea deals in exchange for testimony / snitching ) to a criminal defense lawyer who must fight like hell with tooth and nail without such resources and options.

If my Virginia criminal defense attorney attended law school, does that mean s/he can be effective at trial?

Let’s take the foregoing question and ask: If a medical student has completed their first of four years of medical school, does that mean that the student is ready to perform multiple hours of open heart surgery? For criminal defense trials and avoiding a conviction, nothing beats relevant experience, killer instinct, drive, energy, focus, caring, fearlessness, and love of the battle. When my client decides to go to trial, my client is doing me the favor of giving me the opportunity to do the trial work that I love. Of course, my obligation is to help my client do as little harm to their defense as possible, so when the last settlement movement is more advisable than going to trial, then the settlement option is the way to go if the defendant so decides. At the same time, plenty of times I have won trials when least expecting it. We do not know whether we will win or lose a trial until the trial concludes.

Fairfax criminal defense lawyer Jonathan Katz pursues your best possible outcome against Virginia DUI, felony and misdemeanor prosecutions, by engaging in the necessary proverbial blood, sweat and tears needed to obtain a great court result for you. Find out the great things Jon Katz can do for your defense through your free in-person strictly confidential consultation with Jon about your court-pending prosecution, by contacting us at 703-383-1100, Info@KatzJustice.com, and (text) 571-406-7268.