The Texas Tornado, Mark Bennett, reviews Miami criminal defense lawyer Brian Tannenbaum’s e-book, The Truth About Hiring a Criminal Defense Lawyer.  Don’t be put off by it being called a book.  It’s really more of a monograph, at 28 pages plus a nice pic of Brian at the back end. 

Brian asked Bennett to review it, and review it he does.  I wish Brian had asked me, as my scan following Bennett’s review suggests that I would have loved this piece as well.  But since I haven’t yet read it cover to cover, I defer to my Houston brother’s good judgment.

Here’s how Bennett sums it up:

Subtitled, “The whole truth and nothing but the truth, and not the ‘truth that will lead you to hire me.’”, this little book covers much the first-time accused needs to know to have at least a fighting chance of hiring competent counsel, in six chapters entitled:

• Money (forget about your money problems, and get the money; hire a lawyer you feel comfortable with, who charges more money than you wanted to spend);
  
• Advertising (advertising works; don’t fall for it);
  
• Prior Results (no two cases are the same);
  
• Expertise / Types of Criminal Defense Lawyers (”murder is a six-figure word”);
  
• “Former Prosecutors” (if you choose to hire an ex-prosecutor, make sure it’s for his defense experience); and
  
• Connections (we all know the judges, and the prosecutors, and probably the cops; none of them are going to sell out).

In the process of educating the public, Brian gives away some of the family secrets. For example:

Do not ever call a lawyer you are thinking of hiring and ask how much he charges. He will immediately think you are cheap, broke, and that you will waste his time in a consultation. On that note, don’t ever ask if there’s a consultation fee. That’s like saying “you’re not going to ask me for $500 are you?” A client who has a problem with $500 is again, perceived as cheap, broke, and a waste of a lawyer’s time.

I’m hooked.  Brian has put together the truth as any honest, competent defense lawyer knows it.  There are some tiny details where I might quibble, such as Brian’s suggestion that clients bring in a little something for the staff whenever they show for an appointment.  I’ll take care of my own staff, and clients needn’t bother.  Be respectful to them, as they must be respectful to the client. 

But there’s no need to butter them up.  In my office, the staff owes the client far more than the client owes the staff.  Without the client, the staff would be sitting home watching The View, so the client has saved them from that horrible punishment.

Mark’s quibble with “high-profile” cases is also worth noting.  Bennett says:

[A]n accused goes shopping for a lawyer armed with the delusive belief that his case is a high-profile (”high-pub”, in the argot) case and that he needs a lawyer who specializes in such cases. Some lawyers even make this part of their schtick. In my experience, the vast majority of people who think their cases are high-profile are engaged in egoistical wishful thinking: “if it’s so important to me, it must be important to everyone else.”

True, and something Brian should consider adding to the second edition.  A corollary is the belief that lawyers who are “household names” are inherently better than lawyers whose names you don’t know.  Another inside secret: Some of the best known lawyers are ridiculed within the profession for being incompetent show-ponies, brilliant at self-promotion and awful at law.  Can you tell?  Just because a name is well known to the public means nothing when it comes to their abilities as a lawyer.  As Bennett explains, real high-profile guys do everything in their power to keep their cases out of the media, putting their client’s interest ahead of self-promotion.

Bennett endorses Brian’s e-book, The Truth About Hiring a Criminal Defense Lawyer with an incisive point:

Brian provides an excellent introduction to the task of hiring a criminal defense lawyer. I recommend it to anyone looking to hire his first criminal defense lawyer. Or his second, though getting the right lawyer after you’ve already hired the wrong one is much more costly than getting it right the first time.

I might even take this a step farther.  No matter how much you, the client, think you know about hiring a lawyer, it’s still worth your time to read this and absorb it’s message.  There’s far more in there that will benefit you in hiring and maintaining an appropriate and professional relationship with your lawyer.  Ultimately, it’s all to the client’s benefit to know how best to protect yourself.  Great job, Brian.