Criminal Attorney Santa Clarita

I am often asked about self-representation in the Santa Clarita Courthouse. It is never a good idea to try to represent yourself in a criminal case. Here is a short list of reasons.

1. Because you are the one with everything at stake, such as your liberty, your ability to obtain a job in the future, your ability to maintain a professional license, to name a few reasons, it is too personal for you to objectively handle this without a criminal attorney-Santa Clarita.

2. You don't have the requisite training and experience to properly evaluate whether the prosecution has a good or bad case. You are not going to be an objective advocate for yourself because of this. (Assuming you are a California licensed attorney who is also a Santa Clarita criminal defense attorney, point number one makes self representation a poor choice.)

3. In my 15 years in criminal law, I have found that the judge and prosecutor were annoyed more than anything else when someone chose to represent themself in court on a case. You are dealing with a judge and prosector who see each other every day, and probably have a reasonable working relationship. They don't know you, and are not pleased with your decision that you want to represent yourself. They want to streamline the case in all likelihood. Thus, you probably will not be allowed to present the case in the manner of your choosing.

4. Juries think it is strange to see someone represent themself. They will likely interpret something being not quite right with your self representation.

5. Procedurally, the prosecutor and judge will speed the case along, with or without you. A seasoned criminal attorney- Santa Clarita- will be better equipped to handle this.

6. You would not try to perform a technical medical treatment on yourself; it doesn't make sense to try to handle your own criminal case, where you have everything to lose and nothing to gain by trying to handle it yourself.

6. Even if you don't have a lot of financial resources, the system is in place to appoint an attorney for you at little or no cost. Thus, money should never be a consideration in legal representation of a criminal case.