Choosing a Criminal Lawyer for Your Business

Most business owners feel that hiring a business attorney is an unnecessary and intimidating process. However, in a world where we see businesses facing criminal charges involving corporate liability, fraud, financial crimes, worker rights abuses and others, it’s important to have a criminal defense lawyer for your business just in case you find yourself facing criminal charges.

Unlike other types of lawyers, choosing a business lawyer may not be so apparent. A good business lawyer will be of vital assistance when handling different aspects of your business, such as copyright, lawsuits and liabilities. Here are five tips to consider when choosing a criminal lawyer for your business.

Understanding

When facing criminal charges, businesses need to hire criminal lawyers who specialize in charges they’re facing and identify with their business culture. For instance, many law firms deal with medium and large-sized companies.

What do you do as a startup if you’re facing criminal charges? According to Dsscrimlaw.com, you have to consider a lawyer’s level of understanding based on your type of business and the criminal charges you’re facing.

Whether you’re facing criminal charges like failure to appear or a breach of contract, it’s a good idea to hire a lawyer who has experience handling legal matters related to your criminal charges. A lawyer that understands your business culture and operations will have the knowledge required to handle your case.

Affordability

Hiring a business lawyer is expensive but a necessary expense for businesses. While many new business owners are usually concerned about cutting costs, it’s critical to hire the services of a lawyer. Unfortunately, when facing criminal charges, you have to be careful when selecting a lawyer you can afford. Criminal lawyers are notorious for charging hefty fees for their services.

However, keep in mind that you’re being represented by someone who has extensive training and expertise in complex legal matters concerning your business. You can’t handle criminal charges on your own. Moreover, everything you have built so far is at stake, so hiring a reputable criminal lawyer that you can afford is worth it.

Big Law Firm or Small Law Firm?

In most cases, working with a larger law firm is better and comes with a few advantages than working with small law firms. According to an Entrepreneur article on choosing a business lawyer, legal experts have become highly specialized. If you’ve been charged with a criminal offense, you want to work with a law firm that has enough clout to handle your case.

While larger law firms are more expensive, they’re more established in the local, regional and national legal community and have all the legal skills that you may need for your case “under one roof.” Certainly, when facing criminal charges, you’ll want to work with lawyers whose names are recognized for handling business-related criminal charges.

Availability

Just like any other professional service provider you hire, you need an attorney who will be there to handle your case. A lawyer’s availability is critical in resolving legal matters and getting legal counsel when making critical decisions related to your criminal charges. Although lawyers will rarely admit their unavailability, competent lawyers will only handle a certain number of cases to serve their clients in the best way possible.

You want a criminal lawyer who can be available at short notice to help you at different stages of your case, from pretrial to criminal investigations and during the trial. It doesn’t matter whether you’re facing a basic violation charge or a severe felony, but a lawyer’s availability to handle your criminal case should be guaranteed.

Conclusion

Retaining a business lawyer and building a good relationship with them is considered a major priority for any business that wants to protect itself in the long term. A Forbes article notes that, during consultations with lawyers, you must ask critical questions to understand how the criminal lawyer runs their practise and whether they’re a good fit for your legal needs.

Shawn Barton writes for one of the top criminal defense law firms in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He regularly contributes to their blog by providing legal guidelines and advice on various criminal cases.