What is the most common question you get?

00:00The most common question that I get as a criminal defense attorney is something along the lines of what are my chances? What's the worst thing that's going to happen? Am I going to go to jail? What are the chances of us winning? That's the gist of what I get asked a lot. I think that question is asked a lot is because when someone gets charged with a criminal offense, they're usually scared about,, losing their freedom, having a criminal record, losing their job, immigration consequences,, the financial impact a criminal charge is going to have on them. So naturally they want to know the outcome of the case as soon as possible. My answer is always the same, and it's the true attorney answer of it depends. It depends on the evidence. It depends on the prosecutor. It depends on the judge, on your criminal history. It depends on whether or not you want to take your case to trial or you want to negotiate a plea settlement. Criminal cases are very rarely predictable at the beginning. So that is the question that I get asked the most, but I think the biggest takeaway from that is if you hire an attorney early on, you get help early on, then you are increasing your chances of having a more favorable outcome.