Hypothetical SD aftermath: How do you get an attorney?

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ghbucky

New member
Hypothetical situation:

I've just fired a weapon at a person in a SD situation.

I've read articles about stuff you aren't supposed to do like try to explain yourself to the police, and that you are supposed to politely tell the officers that you want legal representation before you will make a statement.

What I never seem to see anyone explain is how you go about getting a defense attorney after you are in custody.

I'm guessing that I'm going to get a ride in the back of a squad car to the jail after I explain that I won't answer questions about what happened without an attorney present.

I do not know any criminal defense attorneys. How do I go about it when I am sitting in a holding cell?

Does the locale matter?

Can some of the legal eagles here walk through how this works?
 
By law you are allowed a telephone call, for the purpose of getting an attorney. Initially, it doesn't need to be the best criminal defense attorney in the state -- you just need an attorney to help you not make any incriminating statements. You should have the business card of your family attorney in your wallet.

If you don't have a family attorney, look up some defense attorneys, pick one, call that office, and ask how you can reach them if you ever get arrested.

If you sign up with one of the legal services programs that have been discussed in other threads, they usually provide a telephone number. You call them, and they call an attorney.
 
A lot of the defense type ins/pre-paid legal for self-defense events have attnys on call. I use “Firearms legal defense”, look into it.
 
I have CCW Safe. Both my wife and I have their emergency number and information in our cell phones. My wife also has an envelope in her desk labelled "in case I get arrested" with the CCW Safe information in it.

I figure that in a self defense situation, in case I don't have my cell phone, the one phone number I can for sure remember is my wife's. I call her, she calls CCW Safe, and the process starts.

Earlier I read the advice to find a local self defense attorney, as noted previously, and pay the minimum retainer fee so you don't have to worry about that when you make the call from the police station... but just be sure you can remember that phone number just in case.
 
ghbucky said:
I've just fired a weapon at a person in a SD situation.

I've read articles about stuff you aren't supposed to do like try to explain yourself to the police, and that you are supposed to politely tell the officers that you want legal representation before you will make a statement.

What I never seem to see anyone explain is how you go about getting a defense attorney after you are in custody.

I'm guessing that I'm going to get a ride in the back of a squad car to the jail after I explain that I won't answer questions about what happened without an attorney present.

I do not know any criminal defense attorneys. How do I go about it when I am sitting in a holding cell?
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I highlighted the last part of your post because my previous post about your being allowed a phone call applies when you are arrested -- which is the only time you would be placed in a holding cell. On further consideration, you might be asked to come in and give a statement -- or you might be taken in for questioning -- without being arrested. I think that would qualify as being "detained," but that's not the same thing as being arrested. Depending on circumstances, the police might allow you to come in for a statement at a mutually convenient time (which would give you time to call an attorney), or they might want you to come in right then.
 
I carry the business card of [arguably] my state's premier attorney for firearms-related issues in my wallet. I know (from discussions with her) that the number will be answered 24/7. I hope I never have to call it.
 
I carry the business card of [arguably] my state's premier attorney for firearms-related issues in my wallet
Click to expand...

How does one go about identifying the 'best' attorney for this type of thing?

Here in KY, I'm not able to locate any attorneys that claim they are experts in this area. I thought criminal defense was a specialty area, but what I am finding is that pretty much every attorney has a jack of all trades website that says they do it all.
 
ghbucky said:
How does one go about identifying the 'best' attorney for this type of thing?

Here in KY, I'm not able to locate any attorneys that claim they are experts in this area. I thought criminal defense was a specialty area, but what I am finding is that pretty much every attorney has a jack of all trades website that says they do it all.
Click to expand...

That's the very opposite of the way things work in northern Ohio. Few practice in both criminal and civil and even fewer excel at both.

My clients typically get criminal defense counsel by calling me. If you were caught handing the mayor a bag of money to get a city job, that's one sort of fellow, and if you were pulled over drunk that's another fellow.

You could sit in the courtroom for criminal trials and see who impresses you.
 
My guess is that since I live in a blessedly low crime area, an attorney trying to make a living on only criminal defense is going to go hungry.

Most of the attorney profiles that I see in justia.com read like:
"Criminal, Civil Rights, DUI and Personal Injury"
 
Hey ghBucky, I think the smart gun owner plans well in advance. Find one now in your home area and have them on your cell phone directory. Many can refer you to someone in another state if you have problems there.
 
One thing to keep in mind is that national political organizations targeted about 500 local district attorney and sheriff elections in 2019. They are making a run for more in 2020. These are the people who decide if you get charged/prosecuted and they have considerable discretion on that.

If you are seeing DAs and Sheriffs who oppose armed self-defense being elected, that’s a sign of what is coming next. Exercising self-defense is about to be more expensive.
 
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