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/ Families of SOs Support Group

Sacramento - Need help with attorney

tearsforson2
tearsforson2
Hi:
I haven't been on here for a while and thought I would checkin. I had actually hoped that this would go away; but it hasn't. My daughter/grandaughters had accused my son of sexual abuse. I just found out that he has a bench warrant for his arrest (apparently 12 charges); this is so hard to digest. I can't possibly afford to pay 25K as some attorneys have quoted me; And this was just up to pre-trial. Does anyone know of any attorneys that may be reasonable. If I can't afford the fill amount; has anyone been a position where they paid for part of the fees (for example for them to evaluate the case, lead him through questioning; evaluate the case) and then turn it to a PD if needed. Just don't know what to do.
californianative
californianative
Question: Does your son qualify for a court appointed attorney? Our son was arrested years ago in the same general area. We paid for his attorney, as he pleaded not guilty. I was too afraid to allow a court appointed attorney to work on his case. Wrong decision. There are good attorneys and bad ones. We paid 30,000 for a bad one, where as if he would have had a court appointed attorney, it might have had a better outcome. Who knows? But, if you want, I did hear of a good attorney after the fact, and I could try to find him.
Let me know. I feel your pain.
DEBBIEO403
DEBBIEO403
I don't know what the laws on there but here the best lawyers did not make any difference. We paid over 50K and my son got 25 years. I wish we just went with the PD.
mtbfan
mtbfan
Are there not any Pro Bono attorneys out there? Look it up. Pro Bono means free of charge, and I heard that some attorneys assign a few of their cases to be pro bono. Worth a try maybe?
We paid $20, 000 for our attorney, and I think he worked the DA pretty good.
tearsforson2
tearsforson2
Yea, give me names. I want to be aware of ones that worked and didn't work. Someone else said that this attorney was on a list of "super lawyers". I certainly can't afford for attorneys for entire trial, so I'm just at a loss of what to do. Scary I'm just not sure what to do. I hear so many times of PD's being bad, and I have heard that Sacramento being so bad. 25 - 30 year sentence is so scary to me. By the time he gets out of prison I will probably be dead. I don't live there in California so it makes t even more difficult.
ksteeler
ksteeler
We had an attorney through pre-trial (in CA) but couldn't afford after that so had to go with a PD. Ours was a baby...had never tried a sex case before. He meant well, but they put up a senior DA against him; there was no chance. What I didn't know until afterward was that the DA was completely bluffing, adding more and more charges. If my husband had just held on another couple of days (and if the PD had had enough experience to know this) they would most likely have dropped all charges.

I think experience is the most important asset, not name or cost.