Fear can be turned into your friend in court says Fairfax criminal lawyer

Fear regularly permeates courthouses in Virginia and beyond. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I work with my clients to manage their fears, in large part to have them fully prepared for court, for me to be fully prepared for their defense, for them to know I am fully prepared for court, and for me to encourage them to tell me about any of their fears and sleepless nights for me to fully defend them. When a criminal lawyer’s client says “I’m scared”, the lawyer must take heed and not sweep that under the rug. I let my clients know that the prosecutors, police, judges and jurors have their own fears. Prosecutors constantly feel the squeeze among police, alleged victims and their supervisors. Elected Commonwealth’s Attorneys / chief prosecutors are aware of their next election. Police do not want to look like fools, and are well aware of widespread allegations of police abuse. Judges may seem scary to many people, but they also once wore diapers; they are not permitted to let their wishes for reappointment interfere with following their oath, but as humans they are well aware that any perceived mis-steps can make front page news and a legislative vote against their reappointment. Jurors are given a crash course in the law and often receive a dizzying amount of data with which they are left to decide what is true or not and more more true or not. Fear can be turned into your friend by knowing and acknowledging the fears of yourself and others in the courthouse, and working with your lawyer to dissipate your own fears and to handle the fears of the others with whom your attorney is dealing in the courthouse.

Beware any Virginia criminal defense lawyer who reassures “Don’t worry about it” without addressing your worries

For a lawyer to discount your fear or to simply recite a mantra of “Don’t worry about it” reminds me of my summer camp swimming counselor who during our first aid segment told us to lie to the injury victim who is bleeding like a fountain, to keep them from going nuts to their detriment. As my teacher and great trial consultant and psychotherapist Don Clarkson underlines “If you can’t talk about something, it’s out of control.” As a Virginia criminal defendant, you have a right to communicate with your lawyer if you have a concern about whether your lawyer is on track with their devotion to you, your cause and your defense; about whether your lawyer is on the right track with his or her work; and whether your lawyer is up to snuff for defending you, in terms of relevant experience, know-how, command of your case and the legal subject, stamina and anything else that concerns you. Of course, consider the level of diplomacy with which you will raise any of these issues with your lawyer, as common sense tells us. Your lawyer is going to have his or her own set and range of discomforts and fears, and if your lawyer foresees a legal malpractice claim, a bar complaint or even a firing of the lawyer looming a potentialities behind your delivery of your concerns, that lawyer’s brain and words may freeze up, versus if you simply tell the lawyer your concerns and open this to a back and forth conversation.

Letting the prosecutor be their own worst enemy with their fears

Here is an extreme and true example of my simply letting the prosecutor be their own worst enemy with their own fear. During the time that prostitution stings were common in Fairfax, Virginia — before the current self-styled progressive chief prosecutor took the helm over four years ago — there was an assistant commonwealth’s attorney who would be as haughty as can be when I would make efforts to negotiate a resolution that would not destroy my client’s security clearance, career or reputation. Their approach once included sarcastically saying “What was that you said?” and then speaking dismissively about what I repeated. I went to trial against this prosecutor one day for a client charged with frequenting a bawdy place, which involves knowingly visiting for immoral purposes a place where prostitution services are provided. Our judge clearly saw that the police had unlawfully detained my client sitting in his car in a parking lot, thereby suppressing my client’s subsequent permission for a search and his admissions to the police. The prosecutor got so upset about this turn of events that he started crying as he urged the judge to rule in his favor. (Begging and urging do not win arguments to a judge. Showing that the evidence and law are on the lawyer’s side is what wins arguments in court.) The judge refused to change his suppression order.

How do I find a Virginia criminal defense lawyer who is powerfully fearless?

One of my greatest trial teachers addresses fear as our friend, where knowing and embracing our fears makes us more powerful than submerging them from our thoughts, because only through knowing our fears can we confront and conquer them. In my martial art, there is a posture called embrace tiger, return to mountain, which to me is about confronting and conquering our fears fearlessly, like turning a monsoon into a drizzle and sending it on its way. The Hagakure / Book of the Samurai, excellently sums up the best trial fearlessness for a criminal defense lawyer, which is fearlessness of death  — fighting in the moment — and here being willing to face possible failure as the only way to achieve victory: One of the shogun’s personal guards sought swordplay training from the great Yagyu Tajima no kami Munenori. The guard at first denied being a sword master himself, until Tajima no kami finally coaxed from him that he had long ago shed his fearlessness of death. The sword master responded that the “ultimate secrets of swordsmanship also lie in being released from the thought of death… You need no technical training; you already are a master.” Zen and Japanese Culture (Daisetz T. Suzuki).

Am I going to let myself be my Virginia criminal defense lawyer’s guinea pig?

Just as nobody wants to go under the knife for the surgeon’s first time, watch out if your Virginia criminal lawyer does not have the necessary experience and ability to defend you. Although fiction, the scene in My Cousin Vinny where the earlier brash-acting lawyer melts into his fear talking to the jury, underlines that fearlessness cannot be faked, or else cannot be faked very long. Yes, every criminal defense lawyer has to start somewhere, but you do not need to be their first, or, in the alternative, find out if your newer lawyer is working in tandem in some capacity with a teaching or advising lawyer. I have successfully defended thousands of criminal defendants and have successfully taken hundreds of criminal cases to trial. I eat up criminal defense and trials. I ate up fighting even before I stepped foot in law school, starting from having fistfights in elementary school, and verbal sparring for many years starting from then. I delight in the fight, a well-fought fight by me, that is.

How do I soak up the fearlessness of my fearless Virginia criminal lawyer?

Nothing beats preparation, preparation, and preparation; and teamwork, teamwork, and teamwork to deal with your fear and to approach and accomplish victory. One of the greatest movies scenes — even if one leans pacifist — is when George C. Scott’s Patton addresses the hundreds of assembled new World War II soldiers (plenty of whom probably wanted diapers for their nervous bowels), and admonished: “When you put your hand into a bunch of goo that a moment before was your best friend’s face, you’ll know what to do.” This is your life, liberty and reputation at stake as a criminal defendant. Treat it as no less than that. Fight for yourself, and stop letting your friends and family — whose life and liberty is not at stake — dictate to you what to do. By finding and closely working with the right Virginia criminal lawyer as a team with you, you will reach that zone of more powerful fearlessness than you may have ever known you had.

Fairfax criminal lawyer Jonathan Katz has the proverbial battle scars and successes to show for the hundreds of trials he has handled and thousands of defendants he has defended with success. When Jon Katz is your Virginia criminal lawyer, you will get realistic and spirited defense and assessments of your case from Jon, who will both urge and delight in working as a team with you. Find out for yourself through your free in-person confidential consultation with Jon about your court pending case by contacting us at 703-383-1100, info@BeatTheProsecution.com or (text) 571-406-7268.