A conviction can be one of the most devastating impacts on someone’s life and can affect their freedom to travel, employability as well as their liberty in general. Understandably, when most people face police scrutiny they seek the best criminal solicitors in Sydney to work with them.
While not everyone has the same access to the world’s most expensive and renowned lawyers, the best criminal solicitors in Sydney are able to represent their clients on a wide range of charges that differ in severity. The most serious charges will be the hardest to defend against, and will obviously need the best possible legal representation to avoid conviction.
Depending on the available evidence and provability of the offence in question, some proceedings will take longer than others. The best criminal solicitors in Sydney share particular key traits that you should be looking for before hiring them.
Let’s take a look at some of the most important traits to look for when browsing criminal solicitors in Sydney.
Qualifications
The most important part of determining if someone is suitable for the job is to look at their qualifications. While you’re obviously browsing from trained lawyers, not all of them have equal education or accreditation.
Law Society Accredited Criminal Solicitors in Sydney are identified as specialist practitioners who offer an advanced version of the particular legal field. It goes without saying that the best criminal solicitors in Sydney will have the accreditation.
While not necessary to win a case by any means, the accreditation goes that extra bit further in providing your case with highly developed legal skills. These kinds of extra qualifications give you more peace of mind but are likely to cost you more money that a general litigator.
You get what you pay for!
Experience
While often confused, training and experience are entirely different things. The most studied law students who have memorised as much precedent as their heads can hold won’t hold a candle to a lawyer who has actively practised for decades.
While training and education are important milestones, the best criminal solicitors in Sydney will normally have at least 10 to 20 years courtroom experience. This experience should have been spread across defending a wide variety of different cases that challenged the lawyer and improved their skillset, with numerous cases being similar to yours – there’s no point hiring a murder specialist is you are charges with breaking traffic laws!
This work experience not only informs you that they can handle themselves in a courtroom, but that they can handle client relationships. It’s prudent to check the testimonials on their website to compare the way others have worked with them.
Work ethic
The third most important trait of the best criminal solicitors in Sydney has to do with how they actually work as a lawyer. Without much knowledge of the legal profession works you can still get a good sense of if you are able to work with them.
Make sure when you have you initial consultation that you take notes on how they carry out their daily work and how they correspond with clients. While not necessarily a bad thing, if you want a more personalised service and they use a team of legal aids, then you may be seeking a different lawyer with a different style.
While you might desire a lawyer who does everything themselves, there might be other trade-offs with that kind of workstyle, such as having less time for legal research. No matter what way they work, you need to be comfortable with it so that you are on the same page.
Ultimately, choosing the best criminal solicitors in Sydney comes down to considering a mixture of their training, experience and work style. If you are able to tick all 3 of these boxes you may have stumbled across one of the best criminal solicitors in Sydney.
