First, you need to really do your research. If you are charged with a crime, your liberty is at stake – so there’s nothing more important than having your freedom in the hands of an attorney who really knows what they are doing.

There are services out there that rate attorneys. One such service is called Martindale-Hubbell. It’s free for you to go to their website and look at lawyers in your area to see how they are rated. There are three rating levels for attorneys on their site. You want a lawyer with a top-level rating (or at the very least, the second level). A good rating means the lawyer’s peers, judges and other attorneys have recommended to Martindale-Hubbell that this lawyer is a leader in his area of expertise.

Another rating service is Super Lawyers. This service purports to list the top 5% of attorneys in each state. Ratings are done on each lawyer’s specialty, rather than generalities. This is another reliable service you can use online to help you research lawyers and make a good choice.