What is Reasonable to Expect From Your Attorney?

Interviewer: What is a reasonable expectation that a client should have when they retain you, and what’s an unreasonable one in terms of the outcome of the case? I know every case is different.

It is the Attorney’s Job to Represent the Client to the Best of His or Her Ability and to Protect the Client’s Constitutional Rights

Steven: I would like to emphasize that the first thing is a client should not think is that an attorney is a magician, and he’s going to get me off scot-free. I think what the client has to understand is that the attorney’s job is to represent him in court to the best of his ability. That means protecting his constitutional rights and, understanding that—if by going through the process and having a qualified attorney representing you in the matter—it still doesn’t mean you will be completely exonerated.

By Retaining an Attorney, You Are Providing Yourself With the First Opportunity for a Favorable Outcome in Your DUI Case

When you retain counsel, you are calling on an attorney to go over everything, to make sure that the prosecutor, whose job it is to enforce the laws, does so fairly and correctly. If that means that when you hire an attorney he finds out that you weren’t stopped properly and there was a lack of probable cause, that’s what the attorney’s job is, and then to advise the client accordingly.

Attorney Tomeo Does Not Make Promises in Haste to Clients; Instead, He Investigates All Aspects of the Case Before Advising the Client on Which Course to Take

I mean, you could tell the client when he comes in, “Oh, you may have this defense. You may have that defense.” You do not know, because you haven’t seen how the arrest report is written up. I can tell most of the time when a client tells me the facts of their case, I see a number of issues having to do with the stop and probable cause. The question is whether or not I can convince the prosecutor that the arrest report is really contrary to what actually happened. That’s really quite a job. Just to be blunt, suppose you were of minority origin in New York City and you got picked up by the police and you went and hired an attorney. Most people want to hire an attorney because they do not want to be falsely played by the police or by the prosecutor. It’s as simple as that.

Same Sides of the Battle: Attorney Tomeo Believes That When He is Retained, the Client is Hiring Him to Help Fight This Dui Charge as Strongly as the Client Wants to Fight It

To put it plain and simple, an individual coming in to me generally just doesn’t want to be falsely played; he wants to be protected from that occurring. He knows that he could get convicted, but he just wants, if he is convicted, to go down with a fight.