In our experience, a criminal lawyer deals with clients at risk of going to jail for a year or more. Potential clients are often convicted of felonies or crimes that can cause harm to people, such as assault or robbery. When you're looking for help from a criminal defense attorney, here are some facts the right one will know.

Confidentiality Is Essential

When attorneys take on a client case, they also agree that conversations between you two remain private. Thanks to client-attorney privilege, clients can be open and honest with their attorneys. By being open and honest, it can help build a stronger defense as they know everything they're working with. Even if someone is guilty, they may have details that can affect their defense, such as acting out of self-defense from abuse or an assault or underlying undiagnosed issues such as mental illness.

Federal Crimes Are a Hard Defense

When a criminal attorney takes on a defendant, in a federal case, they may have an uphill battle. According to LawFirm.com, a law firm network organization, the United States conviction rate is over 99% in these cases. Federal crimes include tax evasion, immigrant-related offenses, felony possession of a firearm, and treason. A reliable criminal defense attorney will be able to tell you all the details of your case, including your chances of winning and how to increase them.

Investigative Skills Are a Must

Criminal attorneys will put their investigative skills to work. After all, whether they're a defense attorney or prosecutor, they must gather as much evidence as possible to plead your case. Evidence gathering includes finding witnesses to the crime, locating character witnesses, gathering video footage, contacting law enforcement, investigating the past criminal record of the person in question, and more.

Constitutional Rights Must Be Enforced

Regardless of who attorneys are representing, everyone has the right to their constitutional rights. One of the main ones people know is the right to remain silent when under arrest. Everyone also has the right to an attorney and the right to a fair trial. If any of these rights have been violated throughout the process, your attorney may bring them up in court to help your case.

A great deal of work goes into handling criminal cases. That's why criminal defense attorneys must understand constitutional rights, be prepared to defend someone who may be innocent or guilty, and keep the confidentiality between client conversations. For criminal defense attorneys who work with integrity and have over 100 years of legal experience, contact Ianniello Chauvin, LLP today for a free case review.