What Should I Do?
- Selecting a Winning Lawyer
- Succeeding With Your Lawyer
- Right to a Telephone Call
- Miranda Rights
- Should I Speak With the Police?
- Coping With the Stress of Prosecution
- Recommended Lawyers
- Overview Justice System
- Massachusetts Court System
- Middlesex County Courts
- Cambridge District Court
- Concord District Court
- Framingham District Court
- Lowell Superior & District Courts
- Malden District Court
- Somerville District Court
- Waltham District Court
- Woburn Superior & District Courts
- Common Defenses
- Right to Self-Defense
- The Bill of Rights
- Massachusetts Declaration of Rights
Succeeding With Your Lawyer
Your Most Critical Relationship
If you are being prosecuted for a crime, particularly a serious crime, your relationship with your criminal defense lawyer may well be the most important in your life. He not only represents you, he represents your only realistic avenue to an acquittal, a favorable plea bargain or an outright dismissal. As hard as he may work, whether he succeeds in rescuing you from the abyss is, in many ways, up to you.
For your lawyer to best represent you, he requires your assistance and full cooperation. After all, no lawyer can maximize your chances before a jury, negotiate a plea bargain, or even properly investigate the circumstances that resulted in your being charged without your assistance.
What Do I Tell My Boston Criminal Lawyer?
The truth.
Don't misinform your Doctor nor your Lawyer.
- Benjamin Franklin
Ethical obligations present a dilemma of sorts for lawyers, especially criminal defense lawyers. We can only exercise our best judgment on behalf of our clients if we know the truth. At the same time, we are not permitted to present a defense at trial or make a statement to the Court that we know to be dishonest. To a client dreading a lengthy prison term, this ethical conundrum might be reason enough to withhold the truth. A client might sensibly ask himself, “What possible good can come from disclosing the truth if it constrains my lawyer’s ability to fully represent me at trial?” But, a more enlightened client might ask himself, “Is it better to tell my lawyer the truth so that he might properly prepare my defense, or let him find out at my trial, after he is ensnared by his earlier strategic decisions?” I ask my clients to tell me the truth, just as every other successful lawyer does.
Keep Your Emotions in Check
Those accused of crimes are understandably unnerved by the enormity of the stakes. For the individual who is accused of a serious crime, the possibility of incarceration in a maximum security prison is frightening. For the professional or student accused of a relatively minor crime, the possibility of a career derailing criminal record may be nearly as unnerving. Since anger and anxiety are two sides of the same coin, clients often alternate between indignation and pleas for reassurance.
Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.
- Thomas Jefferson
When meeting or speaking with your attorney, give him a detailed, truthful account of the circumstances that led to the charges. Resist the temptation to express your indignation, your anger, or your anxiety to him. A lawyer, after all, is not a therapist. And he will speak to maybe five or ten clients a day. If each one of his clients insisted on venting his feelings to him, he would emotionally exhausted and have precious little left to fight for them. It's in your best interests to have the man or woman you are counting on feeling emotionally strong, indeed indomitable, as he marches into court.
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.
- Mark Twain
Your lawyer can best help you if he understands the facts and he will best grasp the nuances of the circumstances if you calmly answer his questions. If you have strong feelings about your case or the charges, express them to a friend or a therapist. Your criminal defense attorney will appreciate it and, more than likely, work even harder on your behalf.
Contact Boston Criminal Lawyer Kevin J. Mahoney if you have been accused of domestic violence, murder, drug offenses, OUI or a sex offense.
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Criminal
Cross-Examination
“Aside from its excerpts of cross-examination, the book offers extremely valuable wisdom regarding overarching trial strategies (e.g., defense counsel demeanor; tone, tenor, and timing; why you should not call defense witnesses; etc.) The wisdom offered is alone extremely ..."
- Amazon.com Review
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