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Dress to Impress

You have to dress to impress. If you are out on bail, then you have no excuse not to wear your best clothes. If you are in jail, then you must have your family and friends deliver one of your best clothes to wear during the meeting. Keep in mind that this is a business meeting more than anything else, for which the criminal lawyer will also dress to impress.

Shoot the Breeze, At First

You should get to know the lawyer on an informal basis during the first part of the meeting. This way, you can get personal background information about the lawyer and vice-versa. In fact, most lawyers will want to know their prospective clients on a more informal basis before the real war begins.

Share Relevant Information

Before going into the meeting, you should be prepared to answer relevant questions about your case. As such, you must prepare pertinent documents, completed self-made questionnaires, character references and possible witnesses to present during the meeting. Try to be as honest as possible about your case with the criminal lawyer, even when bad things do crop up. Since any and all information exchanged during the initial meeting is subject to attorney-client privilege, you have the assurance that it will not be used against your case should you decide not to hire him.

Also, let the lawyer decide what is relevant or not relevant in your case. Just let him do the talking at first, thus, leading the conversation. You can ask your questions later after his initial questions have been satisfactorily answered. Needless to say, sharing relevant information does not include sharing passionate emotions. Just give your prospective criminal lawyer the straight scoop, good and bad, and leave your emotions out of it.

Set Expectations

If you do decide to hire the criminal attorney to represent you in court, then you have to set expectations. For one thing, you should be able to discuss the possible options and their legal consequences during the initial meeting, no matter how generalized these options seem at this point. For another thing, you should agree on the terms of payment. Your lawyer may deem it risky to take you on if you cannot pay the upfront fee although this can be negotiated depending on the rapport you have already established.

The most important part of your successful initial meeting with your criminal lawyer is to read and understand the legal services agreement. You want to have a lawyer that will truly represent your case and give you the best bang for your buck, so to speak.