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Being accused of a felony is a serious problem in the state of California. After all, once you receive three of them you are on grounds for serving a long prison term and facing severe penalties. Even if you can’t afford an attorney, finding a way to do so is important because of the critical penalties at stake.

Surprisingly, you can easily serve a life term in jail just for having three felonies. And while it may be true that for some this law helps keep dangerous criminals off the street, for others it only hurts families for no reason other than being falsely or wrongly accused. You should make the best of a bad situation by obtaining a criminal defense lawyer as soon as you possibly can to look for solutions.

Do your research before even contacting a criminal defense attorney. There are plenty out there with no experience, or with only enough experience to account for several cases. If you are dealing with the act of going to jail for a life sentence, you should only call attorneys that have had an impressive list of cases that have been won.

Ask to see a list of prior cases that involved the California three strike rule. If the attorney has consistently made impressive strides to release their clients from the law, you can probably trust the attorney with your case. If the attorney doesn’t have experience in this law specifically, try to get a referral or go back to researching other attorneys.

The free consultation is key when you are sizing up all of the attorneys willing to take your case. The attorney should never try to purposely scare you or manipulate you to make a payment after the consultation. Odds are that these attorneys are just looking to make money and are not genuinely concerned about their victims. Usually a good track record can help you look past this, but not often is it a good sign.

When faced against impossible odds, you might feel compelled to give up and plead guilty or represent yourself. Don’t do either of these things, and instead still continue to get a criminal defense attorney. When things look bad, you can still win by having an attorney throw the case out for any number of reasons, such as wrongful search or lack of evidence. If you don’t get outside help, you are sure to lose the case.

Closing Comments

The money required for a good attorney is immense. But don’t be scared away by having to put yourself into debt for a good attorney. After all, it’s better to be in debt and work your way out rather than be in jail and not having possibility of parole.

Learn more about Ventura Criminal Defense Lawyer and Los Angeles Criminal Defense Attorney.