What Is the Best Way to Find a Good Criminal Defense Attorney in Springfield IL?
By Dan Noll on September 2nd, 2015 in
Often times people say, “How do I find a good attorney in Springfield, Illinois?” Well, it depends on a number of things. First of all, what’s the problem? If you walk into our office and ask us about some boating accident on the Mississippi River, I can guarantee you’d probably want. You come into our office and say, “Listen, I just robbed a bank and here’s a sack of $400,000. What do I do next?” We can handle that. Those types of things, no problem for us. To find an attorney, most people are going to first look to the yellow pages or to the internet. This is a good example. The internet is good. People can Google and do ads on the internet.
It’s important that the individual look to see what kind of track record, in terms of the new media the office has. Once again, the internet can be deceiving to a large degree. Not because people are trying to… They’re trying to sell things, so they sell the system. Word of mouth probably helps our office as much as the internet, in terms of having routine clients. We find that people have heard about us. They’ve seen us on TV. They’ve seen the successes we’ve had in trials. They want to go with a winner. That’s very flattering. Understand this, though. Not every case is a winner. Nor is every case a loser, to paraphrase a recent song, popular genre. Also, the people in jail, the people in police.
The police really have a pretty good sense. Ask them. Really, word of mouth. You’ve got to find out people who’ve gotten satisfactory work. The internet is excellent. I’d rate the internet number 1, tied with word of mouth. You’ve got to find out who you’re dealing with and what kind of reputation they have. One of the things you should always, always, always do before you hire an attorney: go to the initial consultation. We have an initial consultation that’s no expense. You get some feel for who you’re dealing with and the attitude of individual, things like that. You just hire an attorney off the internet, that’s a mistake. Hire an attorney off word of mouth, that’s a mistake. Hire an attorney off the yellow pages, that’s a mistake.
Go in and see that person, because it’s a very personal relationship between a client and an attorney. One that can effect time in prison. One that can effect huge fines in the hundreds of millions of dollars. They better be doggone comfortable with whoever you’re hiring. We feel that we have a good personal relationship. We like to think that we communicate well. Those are things you have to determine at the front end and it’s difficult. If somebody asked me today, “Go out and find an archaeologist who can look at this skull,” I’d have no idea what to do. I would start in terms of protocol for decision making, the internet, start making some phone calls, word of mouth, and find out the best archaeologist to determine if this was an Indian from 2,000 years ago or somebody who was buried after the Civil War, those kinds of things.
That’s how I would approach finding an attorney in Springfield.