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Welcome to the prosecution, presented by Virginia Criminal Defense Lawyer John Katz, where we are here to regularly present to you information and ideas for beating your prosecution as best as possible. Now your host, John Katz.

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Hello, everybody. This is John Katz. I'm a criminal defense and DUI defense lawyer in Fairfax, Virginia. Welcome, everybody. I'm introducing you or reintroducing you to Abby Sweigart, our podcast master.

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Hello, everyone.

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What's today's topic, Abby?

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Is it worth the cost? Are lawyers worth the cost?

SPEAKER_01 0:36

Well, you know, that's an interesting one. Um, I suppose if a person has a cyst on their neck, they could wait a few weeks and see if it goes away, or if it uh becomes something uh so big that now surgery can't even solve it, or they can just invest the money in having a doctor check it out uh with a lawyer. At least sit down with a lawyer if you're facing a jailable offense to figure out if you need a lawyer. But if you go to court without a lawyer, you're going against a lawyer, that's the prosecutor, you're going against a judge who's a lawyer, you're going against a cop who's trained in the law. And so who's the only one who's not trained in the law, Abby?

SPEAKER_00 1:19

It would be you.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

There you go.

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Client.

SPEAKER_01 1:22

So, Abby, what what kind of things do people want to know about uh paying for a lawyer?

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I think people have questions about do they have to pay a hundred percent of the costs up front or can there be payment plans? I think that's a big one that's asked if they can pay in installments, because sometimes it is a hefty price to you know get your justice and beat the prosecution.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

That's right. Most people who um go ahead and uh need a lawyer, they haven't saved for one for a rainy day, at least for when they uh need a criminal defense lawyer. And so what we do to make it convenient is I typically for a flat fee, not always, uh will offer a 50-50 payment plan as long as I have my full payment in my hands before the first uh trial date or earlier court date, and we're able to tell clients about various payment uh financing options. Of course, there's the obvious ones about going to your bank, uh using your credit or debit card, but some of them have very unfavorably high interest rates. There's credible.com, which is a consolidator of various financing institutions where you can find out pretty instantly about whether you qualify and what kind of terms and conditions you qualify for a loan. We use lawpay.com for processing our credit cards, and so this is one-stop shopping to both pay us through a credit card system and also just instead to see if you qualify for a loan that way through the affirm company. Uh, didn't you help someone recently, one of our clients, and uh uh doing that system through a firm and lawpay?

SPEAKER_00 3:08

Yeah, we've had a few clients that it's been a very successful program for them to be able to finance paying for John's, you know, retaining John for their case. And it's very simple through Law Pay, at least this, you know, the system where you use in a firm, you just put in some of your information to confirm who you are. And she was instantly able to get um the payment plan and rates that it would be for her in her situation. And you know, after she realized she was approved and she could pay for John, um, she was just eternally grateful that that was even an option that she could do because she couldn't pay you know the lump sum that was required up front.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

Was this a client of ours who got rejected by her bank for a loan?

SPEAKER_00 3:51

Yeah, she wasn't able to, and I think she was maxed pretty high on her credit card, so that wasn't an option, and the bank from my understanding wouldn't give her a loan, so this was a good third option.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

How long did the entire process take from beginning to end while you're on the phone with this client for doing a firm application?

SPEAKER_00 4:08

Five minutes from you know, logging in to hitting the process payment and instant, you know, the wonders of technology, it was super fast, and she got an approval right then within mere moments.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

Abby, how many podcasts have we done up to now?

SPEAKER_00 4:24

So we've done two previous ones.

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And where can people get more information about our law firm, including our detailed blog entries?

SPEAKER_00 4:32

So you know, blogs or if you just want to, you know, research us and or ask us questions, you can reach us at beatheprosecution.com or you can give our office a call during normal office hours or after hours at 703-383-1100. And for people who like texting, our texting number is a little different. It would be 571-406-7268.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

And did you already say the info at email address?

SPEAKER_00 5:00

Yeah, if you need to email us, if that's your preferred you know method of communication, it would be info at beatheprosecution.com. All one word.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

So, Abby, did you know that before COVID, I actually rarely accepted any payment plans at all and took flat fees? And during COVID, there were such long delays sometimes to get court dates. I decided I would experiment and it worked out with doing a 50-50 payment plan, and uh I would guarantee the second payment with a credit or debit card where our contract says that I will automatically bill that amount uh on such and such a date, and the client can always do a replacement payment. I'm not the biggest fan about financing, I just like that that's an option. Uh the the these interest rates for a firm they can run from uh 10% up to 36%. I think anything over 20 or 25% gets kind of high. Um, but the thing that I do like about this affirm company is that uh they tell you right off the bat how much they're billing, and apparently they're very clear on what the terms and conditions are for their lending. What other things do you think people would want to know about hiring me or another Laura Abby?

SPEAKER_00 6:13

Um because it's sometimes, you know, a hard topic for people about the money. I think is people want to make sure they're getting what they're paid for. So how does someone when they walk into a lawyer's office and they're getting quoted a price, know what that if that's a good price or if you know what they're getting for their payment?

SPEAKER_01 6:31

You want transparency in your potential lawyer. If your lawyer gets upset, angry, curt, or evasive about answering any question, legitimate question you ask that you do so uh that you do so politely, you better wonder about that lawyer. If someone says to me, why are you charging X amount of dollars when Joe Schmoe down the street is charging Y dollars, I'll be able to sit down with them. Well, in my experience, it takes at least X number of hours to handle this kind of case. I expect perhaps for there to be more than one uh court date, I'm gonna have to be spending this amount of time getting discovery and other evidence and reviewing it. Uh if I find out at the end of the representation that what I charge seems to have been uh more than was necessary uh on a subjective level uh for billing you, I I have sometimes refunded uh some money to clients where I found that I billed more than what was necessary, but then on the flip side, uh there's some clients who hire me and pay me for less than was necessary after all, and it's kind of like an all-you-can-eat buffet in some ways. Didn't we recently have a court case where I think uh we've been uh in court for trial dates for three times for this client, and just recently one of the essential witnesses for the prosecutor uh came down with COVID and the prosecutor for a third time, and this uh this I objected to this in the last time uh got a continuance over my objection.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

Yeah, so you kind of can't tell going in how long the case is gonna take or what you're getting yourself into sometimes. But it sounds like you want people to feel empowered to ask these questions to potential lawyers and know where their money is going and not be afraid to to ask.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Right. So so let's go for the rest of it. Uh if if the potential client says to me, Okay, well, you've told me how much time this is going to take, but Joe Schmo down the street is still building less, why why should I hire you instead? I will not say anything bad about any colleague. What I'll instead say is, look, you know, go with whoever you want, but this is what I offer. What I offer is over 30 years of successful experience defending thousands of people charged with criminal offenses. I go in there with no holds barred, no kid gloves. I've taken hundreds of cases to trial successfully. That's what I'm offering you. I will tell the potential client about what I can do for their case. And I'm all about uh being interested in the best possible result for the uh criminal defendant who comes into my office and for them to do it within their budget. So if they find another lawyer uh and they still get a good result, I'm happy for them. And I'm happy for uh for me when they come and hire me because I just love doing this work. Now, I don't want to sound like an ogre that I uh objected to a continuance when this essential witness for the prosecutor came down with COVID. I'm sure she was telling the truth, but I was just miffed that the case got postponed the previous time, so I went ahead and objected to it anyway. Anything else I should be telling the listeners on this topic?

SPEAKER_00 9:41

Is it a one-size-fit-all payment? You charge the same amount for every person that comes in typically?

SPEAKER_01 9:48

Excellent question. You know, when I was a senior in high school, I was one of the highest commission earners uh for two separate weeks at the old Tom McCann discount shoe store. And so this fits in with uh there's no one size fits all. I suppose if someone has a size 14 shoe versus a size six shoe, there's more material, and that shoe might be more expensive. I need to size up uh what the person's case is about, what they're looking for. Uh so no, there is there is no uh set menu of billing. I want to bill enough to be able to go to the battlefield and do a great job in the battlefield. I'm only gonna go fully armed in the battlefield, which is the courthouse for our clients, or I'm not gonna go at all. Uh but that is gets back once again, though. I mean, if I find out that I charge a client too little, like this client who's now gonna have a fourth trial date, uh, that's fine. I mean, once you pay for the all-you-can-eat buffet at my law firm, uh, you'll get my full uh fire power and work, even if I find out maybe I should have charged more after all.

SPEAKER_00 10:54

I think the last thing it's kind of tadpoles off this subject, when should people start those meetings with lawyers of possibly retaining them, especially when there's hefty amounts possible that you have to pay? When should you contact these lawyers or any lawyer?

SPEAKER_01 11:11

Well, soon, because this reminds me of what uh an alcoholic once said, which is that in the AA meeting, one of them mentioned that while we're here at the AA meeting, our alcoholism is doing push-ups outside to keep strengthening the alcoholism and to challenge our resolve not to drink. So, uh, of course, even my DWI clients aren't all alcoholics, but it's it's an apt uh analogy because the longer you take to get yourself the right lawyer for you, the prosecutor's not waiting, the uh the cops are not waiting for you to get a lawyer. They are preparing the case against you. Uh so I would suggest that within two or three business days of being arrested, at the latest, start checking with lawyers. You don't need to hire the first one. Give yourself a chance to compare lawyers. But if you take more than 10 to 15 days after your arrest to hire a lawyer, now you're coming into possibilities where there might be uh papers that are filed by the prosecutor, by the police that really have to be acted on. You get it in the mail, you don't know what to do with it, or there might be some filing deadlines you have that you don't even know about, uh, or evidence you have to get that might disappear otherwise. The sooner you get a lawyer, the better, within one or two weeks, or I'd actually say more like seven to ten days within being within being arrested, the better.

SPEAKER_00 12:33

So it sounds like the sooner the better. And an overview, just to a po empower yourself to ask questions of lawyers that you're meeting and ask about financing financial options that you could have, paying by payment plans, or like we said when we use a firm, um that's been a great help to some people that would need it. So asking those questions is probably the best for potential clients to do and to be able to find the right lawyer for them.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

Right. And of course, on the topic of finding the right lawyer, if your lawyer charges more than Joe Schmo down the street but gets an acquittal for you, you've saved your liberty, you haven't paid any fines and court costs. If it's a DWI case, you've saved your driving privileges. It's kind of like going to a doctor. Anyone who's going to go to a doctor for open heart surgery who just graduated uh a week before from some uh mail order uh uh medical center, uh, I don't think people want to do that.

SPEAKER_00 13:29

And it's it's at the end of the day, I think it's your money and it's your case in your life, and you need to find the lawyer that's right for you, and you know, the finances that are right for you. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 13:41

That's right. Abby, thanks so much for helping us out on this podcast. Where can people reach us again if they want to contact us?

SPEAKER_00 13:48

Our website, as always, beat the prosecution.com, or you can send us an email at info at beatheprosecution.com, or give us a call at 703-383-1100.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

Thanks everybody. This has been John Katz, a criminal defense and DWI defense, Laura and Fairfax.

SPEAKER_00 14:06

Thank you for listening to this week's episode on Debete the Prosecution. This is a regular podcast trying to give people a like up against police investigations and court prosecution. We welcome your contacting us at info at defeatheprosecution.com and at seven zero three eighty three one one zero zero.