Criminal Law

One of the most common questions you get asked when you tell people that you do criminal defense work is, "How can you do it? How can you represent someone when you know they are guilty?"

First, not everyone is guilty.  Even those who are guilty require legal representation in order to make our system work.  The American criminal justice system requires the skillful advocacy of counsel acting on behalf of a criminal defendant regardless of guilt.  Because ours is an adversarial system, both the people and defendants must be represented by strong advocates to ensure that the public has confidence in the outcome of cases.

In addition, many defense lawyers understand that there are actually three different situations which one comes across with clients and thus three variations on the approach that defense counsel uses:

• The first situation is one where the defendant really didn't do it.  In this situation defense counsel does everything he or she can to get his or her client acquitted.  It is a fundamental truth that innocent people should never be punished for crimes they did not commit.

• Second, the defendant did something wrong, but not the thing that he or she is charged with.  In this situation, defense counsel also does everything he or she can to get his or her client acquitted, but will strongly advise and recommend that the defendant take a plea deal if a good one is offered.  A surprising number of people know they did something wrong and are willing to accept the punishment that comes with it, but they don't want to feel cheated or wronged by being convicted of something they did not do.

• Finally, the defendant did it.  In this situation, again defense counsel does everything he or she can to get the defendant acquitted (not only do the laws and rules that govern lawyers require one to do so but one's own conscience does as well).  The strategy and goal here is to thoroughly examine the work done and the theories presented by the police and the prosecutors to make sure that they are playing fairly; that they haven't broken the rules, cut corners, or otherwise infringed on people's rights.

At the end of the day, defense lawyers are working to keep the system honest.  Police and prosecutors both make mistakes at times.  By having an adversarial system of justice, we ensure that there is always someone there to help make sure that prosecutors do their jobs correctly, that innocent people are not mistreated by the system, and that people who did do something wrong are only punished for the wrongs they did and not for wrongs they did not do.

It is a little known fact that John Adams, who was both George Washington's Vice President and the second President of the United States, successfully defended the British troops who were involved in the Boston Massacre at their trial.  While no defense lawyer is likely to lay claim to being on par with our second president, it is important to remember that even one of our greatest Americans, one of the founding fathers, was a defense attorney who represented unpopular clients and worked as best as he could to keep the system just.

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Representation

Most of our criminal defense work is handled by Jeffrey A. Hoerter, Esq. who is of counsel to the firm.   Mr. Hoerter represents clients in all matters of criminal law, from speeding tickets to first degree murder.