Ohio Criminal Appeals Lawyer Blog

Choosing a lawyer to appeal your conviction or sentence is hard. The yellow pages are full of lawyers. How do you know which one to pick? You could ask a friend who they used on their criminal appeal, but how many of us have friends who had a good lawyer on their criminal appeal? How about a lawyer on television or a billboard? Those are things that can be bought too. Is a lawyer better because they pay more on advertising? Not necessarily so you better be cautious.

So what do you do about hiring a lawyer for your appeal? If you don't have a trusted friend who knows that a certain criminal appeals lawyer will do a good job on the appeal, you will have to do your best with what you have - your common sense. Maybe you should ask the following questions.

1. Does the lawyer limit their practice to certain areas of the law or is the lawyer trying to wear too many hats (and trying to keep up on developments in too many areas)? I have limited my practice to criminal defense appeals since 2003.

2. Is there any way for you to tell that the lawyer is current in the area of criminal law or are you just hoping they are? I keep up on the Federal and Ohio cases every week and I blog about the cases I think you would find most interesting.

3. Who is going to work on your appeal? Will it be the lawyer you meet or will it be staff hired by this person you will never see? Even worse, will the lawyer you meet contract the work out to another lawyer or someone else? I have often heard how a family wanted to hire someone they perceived to be some "Perry Mason" type figure to handle the criminal defense at trial only to find that all they saw during the trial process were Associates hired by this "top dog." On appeal it would be even easier for this Perry Mason figure to have all kinds of law students, paralegals, other lawyers down on their luck or whatever do the work you hired "Perry Mason" to do. How would you ever know? I do all the work -- from start to finish -- on every criminal defense appeal I handle.

4. Watch out for promises. You know when you will find out you hired the wrong lawyer? Probably when it is too late. I have heard stories of how lawyers have promised the moon to potential clients. The defendant and his family are surprised at the end when it all falls flat and the lawyer goes on to the next case, but then what? The lawyer already has his money. "But you promised you would take it all the way to the Supreme Court" or "You promised we would win" or "You promised he would be home for the holidays." Yeah, right. Watch out for the lawyer making promises that sound too good to be true (even though I know you want to believe them at the time). And how do you think one lawyer will get the case instead of another? Is it who makes you more or better promises? Take any promises you do not get in writing with a grain of salt. I will not make any promises and I will be honest about your prospects.

5. Is the lawyer you had at trial pushing a certain lawyer on you for appeal? This may be okay, but it could also be a bad thing. On appeal I try to find ways in which the trial lawyer failed to provide the effective assistance of counsel. Many trial lawyers do not enjoy being accused of being ineffective. If a trial lawyer is pushing a certain lawyer onto you to do the appeal, ask yourself why they are doing this. Are they buddies from law school? Associates? Golf partners? You may be better off choosing a lawyer who only has your interest in mind when examining the record for ineffective assistance of trial counsel.

6. Does the lawyer have a winning track record to show they know how to win an appeal or can't they show you cases they have won on appeal? How many criminal defense appeals have they done? Make sure you get facts from the lawyer and not just claims or promises. Many of my wins are listed on this blog (click on "View my wins on appeal" in the upper right corner). Click here to see how to check a lawyer's record on appeal.

7. What research system will the lawyer use to do the research for your appeal? Will it be a "free" or low-cost system or a premium research system like Westlaw? I have used Westlaw since 2003 and I have access to all the law I would need to handle your appeal.

8. What kind of support network does the lawyer have? As a long-time member of the Ohio Association Of Criminal Defense Lawyers, I have access to the Listserv which "joins over 500 members from around the state" who bounce ideas off each other and keep up on current developments in the field of criminal defense in Ohio. I am also a long-time member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers which also has a listserv.

Choosing the right professional is always a challenge and choosing a lawyer for your appeal might be the hardest of all. But choose wisely because you may not know how good (or bad) your choice was until it is too late. By the way, if you went with someone else and regret it, check out the information I posted under PRACTICE AREAS about applications to reopen appeals.

Good luck!

It is important for you to know how to check a lawyer's record on appeal before you hire him or her. How many appeals have they handled? How many have they won? How many have they lost? From looking at the opinions of the Court of Appeals, does it look like the lawyer put a lot of work into trying to win the appeals they lost?

You can search for Court of Appeals decisions by a lawyer's name or Supreme Court Number (you should try both ways to make sure you do not miss anything). Let's use Appeal Lawyer Robert Alan Brenner as an example. I practice in the Second District. When you go to the web site (for which there is a link at the end of this paragraph), pick "Second District Court of Appeals" under "Source," pick "Anytime" under "Decided," enter "Brenner" in the "Full text" search area, make sure "Topics/Issues" is checked and click "Submit." You can see every case I handled in the Second District Court of Appeals that made it to a decision. Some of those are not my cases since "Brenner" will pull up some miss-hits, but you get the idea. Check each case by clicking on its link to confirm you found the attorney you were looking for. Here is the link to the web site.

Make sure you check a lawyer's history when you are considering hiring them. Or you could just trust what the lawyer tells you. You know, how great they are, how they can handle your situation, how much experience they have with your kind of case, etc. But if I were you, I'd run a search.

And do not forget that you do not know who is actually doing the appellate work in these cases. Just because a particular lawyer's name is on a decision does not mean they reviewed the transcript and the rest of the record, did the research, or even wrote the brief. Word has it that a popular local firm uses a lawyer outside of Ohio for their appellate work. As I have said elsewhere on this site, I do all the appellate work myself on all the cases I handle. And since I am located in this area, I can go to the clerk's office myself, view the evidence myself, and even visit important landmarks related to the case. Click here for the rest of my tips on picking a lawyer for your criminal appeal.

Many convicted defendants will qualify for an appointed lawyer for their appeal. This article printed in today's Dayton Daily News points out how low appointed fees are and starts out by asking whether you'd want your loved one represented by a low-paid lawyer.

In my experience, fees for appointed counsel on appeal are even lower than those at the trial level and requests for "extraordinary fees" are granted more frequently at the trial level than on appeal. So do you want your loved one represented by an appointed attorney on appeal? Many families have no choice since they simply cannot afford to hire a private lawyer. But if you can afford to hire a private lawyer for the appeal, you may want to do so.

Montgomery County pays $50.00 per hour up to $1500.00 for appeals from felony convictions. That amounts to just 30 hours of work. I was appointed to this appeal in Montgomery County and I spent 48.9 hours on the case. When I do appeals, I put in as much time as it takes to give my clients the best chance to win. I won the appeal and the defendant's prison term was shortened by 10 years. Since I spent 48.9 hours on the appeal, I made just $30.50 an hour, before taxes and expenses. And Montgomery County pays significantly more for appointed appeals than the other counties within the Second District.

If the lawyer appointed to your appeal has the goal of winning your appeal despite the low fees, then you should probably stick with that lawyer. But how many appointed lawyers can win a felony appeal in just 20 or 30 hours? Or how many appointed lawyers will go beyond those fee limits knowing that their hourly fee is shrinking with each extra hour of effort?

If you want to stick with your appointed lawyer on appeal, then good luck to you. I hope one of the good ones was appointed to your case. But just remember how stifling the appointed fees are for appeals in Ohio. If you can afford a private lawyer, you may want to consider retaining one to give yourself the best chance to win on appeal. Here is a link to my tips for choosing a lawyer for your appeal.