What Can Attorneys Do for You?

Attorneys serve several functions in the court, legal system, and for their clients. Many people are unfamiliar with the variety of roles that attorneys play, which is unfortunate. There are many things that an attorney can help with that are being missed out on due to ignorance of their services. Of course we have all seen them on television and in movies defending murderers and yelling objection, but what else does an attorney do? Knowing the operations could certainly help you in the future if you ever need assistance in an area that attorneys specialize in. Here are some of the day to day duties that an attorney performs, for those of you out there that may not know.

1. Trial attorney – Just to get it out of the way, these are the attorneys that we are most familiar with. They are shown in popular media regularly, and there are whole television programs dedicated solely to this type of attorney. They will either be prosecuting or defending people that have been accused of a crime, presenting evidence, and building a case for or against them.

2. Advice – Some attorneys charge for legal advice and some do not. It is important to meet with an attorney if you have any problems or questions that you need help from a professional. They will be able to tell you how much trouble you are actually in, what you should be worrying about, and whether you need to actually hire an attorney. Just be sure that you consult with somebody that has a good reputation. Many attorneys will make you believe that you need to pay them for services that you could easily do by yourself.

3. Divorce – Attorneys will be a large help in a divorce. They can make sure that the assets are divided properly, fix any spousal support amounts necessary, and they also deal with custody issues. Many of these topics can be hard for a couple to deal with on their own, and having a divorce attorney help them through it can do a large part in keeping things civil.

4. Bankruptcy – Sometimes, people get into bad situations and end up way over their head. When somebody is faced with crippling debt, bankruptcy attorneys will provide assistance. The attorney will let you know whether you actually need to file for bankruptcy, or just some simple money management can help the problem. Filing for bankruptcy can damage your credit for the next ten years, so it is imperative that you know all of your options before proceeding, and a bankruptcy attorney will be there to provide you with that knowledge.

This is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the different types of attorneys out there and what they do. Law can be very complicated at times, so it is great that we have highly educated professionals available to us as our guides.

Attorneys

There is only so much that defense attorneys can do. If they have a client that is guilty of murder and all the evidence points to it, the attorney does not have much recourse. Of course the attorneys could file an appeal to lower the sentence, but there are times that a person is just destined to head over to death row. A defense attorney will take a case such as this in an attempt to exonerate the murderer, and many attorneys have actually made a name for themselves by surprising the world and getting a murderer acquitted on all charges. Here are three of the cases where the defense attorney just could not keep their client out of death row.

1. Lawrence Bittaker – Having troubles with the law several times in the past, Bittaker was finally sentenced to death after he and his accomplice raped and murdered five local girls over a period of five months. He was a fairly intelligent man, having an IQ of 138, but he was diagnosed as a sociopath that could not control his actions. Attorneys could not do much for Bittaker since his accomplice, Roy Norris, told his friend Jimmy Dalton about the murders that they committed. Dalton then went to his own attorney and told him everything he had heard, making it fairly simple for prosecuting attorneys to convict them both.

2. Richard Ramirez – A serial killer that murdered nearly twenty-five people, Ramirez was deeply disturbed since childhood. He became involved with drugs and the occult at a young age. His trial began in 1988, during which Ramirez was overheard telling people that he was going to shoot the prosecuting attorneys with a gun in the courtroom. There were over one hundred witnesses that testified during the case. While his defense attorney did file an appeal, the death sentence was upheld. A subsequent rehearing was asked for by the attorney, but was denied.

3. Oba Chandler – This is a case where the client did not listen to his attorneys, and perhaps paid the price for it. Chandler was accused of murdering a mother and her two daughters while taking them on a cruise in his boat. Attorney advice told Chandler not to testify for himself, but he refused. Despite being told by his attorneys not to, Chandler testified in his own defense that the three murder victims simply stopped him to ask him for directions. There is a reason why people use an attorney, and that reason is they know more than you. Some people just don’t know when to keep their mouths shut.

The attorneys in these cases did what they could for their clients, but there are cases when an attorney just can’t help. A word to the wise, if you are going to commit murder, at least listen to what your attorneys tell you when you are in court. Otherwise the prosecution attorney is going to have a field day.