One of the first calls we receive from a new client is, at times, not from the person facing charges at all. It is from a parent, a spouse, a sibling, or a close friend who is frightened and trying to figure out what to do. They have usually already spent several hours searching online, reading reviews, comparing websites, and trying to make sense of a world they have never had to enter before. By the time they call us, they are often overwhelmed, confused, and unsure how to evaluate what they are seeing.
That experience is completely understandable — and it points to something genuinely difficult about hiring a criminal defense attorney: most people have no prior experience with the legal system, no established way of evaluating competence, and no framework for distinguishing between an attorney who is good at marketing and an attorney who is good at law. They are trying to make one of the most consequential decisions they will ever make, often under enormous time pressure, in a field where they have no expertise.
This article is designed to give you that framework.
The Most Important Thing to Understand: Not All Attorneys Are the Same
This surprises many people: not all attorneys are the same, even within a single practice area. Criminal defense is a broad category. It includes attorneys who handle a wide variety of criminal cases alongside their general practice, attorneys who focus primarily on one type of case, and attorneys who have built deep expertise in highly specific areas of criminal law. The level of relevant experience can vary enormously even among attorneys who describe themselves as criminal defense lawyers.
This variation matters because criminal law is both technically complex and highly procedural. A minor error in strategy at an early stage of a case, a missed deadline, a failure to challenge a piece of evidence properly, or a misunderstanding of how a particular judge tends to rule on a particular motion can change the entire trajectory of your case.
The attorney who handled your neighbor’s business dispute is not necessarily equipped to handle your OUI charge. The attorney who wrote a will for your parents may be a wonderful lawyer, but that does not mean they know how to cross-examine a field sobriety testing officer effectively.
Milligan & Higgins is a premier OUI and criminal defense firm in Massachusetts, with over forty years of collective experience. If you or a loved one is facing criminal charges, we are here to help.
Watch our firm video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx-X_9CssZo&t=2s
Contact Milligan & Higgins for a free consultation or second opinion. Please send us an email: Intake@milliganhiggins.com or call 781-878-1231.
