ft freely military criminal lawyers

Defending yourself from a court martial requires so much more than just showing up for your trial. There are many decisions you may have to make along the way. You might need to decide whether to plead guilty or go to trial. You might need to decide what to ask the court to do when it comes to imposing a fair sentence. Another thing you might have to decide is whether you’re able to comply with terms such as alcohol monitoring and treatment, counseling or other rehabilitative programs.

Among the important decisions you have to make is your decision to hire a lawyer. You have the option to use the lawyer that the military gives you when you’re given your court martial. However, you can hire your own attorney to represent your interests and advocate on your behalf. There are many reasons why hiring your own military criminal lawyer can help you reach a better result in your case.

It tells the court you’re serious

The attorneys that bring the court martial proceedings on behalf of the military have busy court schedules. In fact, they have far more cases at any time than they could ever take to trial. They’re relying on most defendants wanting to enter into a plea agreement. When a person pleads guilty, they agree that they aren’t going to have a trial in their case.

This can make just hiring your own military criminal lawyer work to your favor. When you work with your own lawyer, the military attorneys know that you’re serious about defending yourself to the fullest extent of the law. They know that you’re going to file motions before trial regarding evidence. They know that you’re going to take the time to build your case and present it as aggressively as you can.

Sometimes, when you hire an attorney, that alone is enough to have the court martial attorneys rethink what they’re going to do with your case. They might give the case a second look to rethink whether they should pursue the court martial at all. They also might decide to extend you a plea offer that’s attractive to you. This might be a better plea offer than you could have received without a lawyer. Telling the court that you’re serious can be enough to tip the scales in your favor.

Negotiating with the military’s attorneys

Another reason to choose a military criminal lawyer is that your lawyer can spend time negotiating the best possible resolution with the attorneys that brought your court martial. Each court martial is different. That means that each resolution can be different.

When you accept the attorney that the military gives you, you’re getting an attorney that’s used to processing as many cases as possible as quickly as possible. The military has limited resources to give to defending military members from court martial proceedings. That means, you might get an attorney that just takes the first plea offer the military extends and tries to get you to accept it.

When you work with your own military criminal lawyer, the first thing they’re going to do is evaluate your case for viable defenses. The best possible result is that they’ll be able to show the military attorneys why you’re not guilty, and the military attorneys will agree to drop your case. The next option is to build your case, so that you have the best possible chance for success at trial.

Even if you’re working towards pursuing a non-trial plea resolution, not all plea offers are created the same. Your attorney can spend critical time working with you and the military’s attorney in order to fashion the plea agreement that’s right for you. This might include extra work to get a better offer in exchange for participating in rehabilitative programs. It might mean negotiating a penalty that allows you to keep an honorable discharge. These little details can make a big difference when you’re working on securing your future career.

Help put your best foot forward

Facing a court martial is likely one of the most serious things you’ll face in your entire career. You owe it to yourself to do the best you possibly can to defend yourself. A private attorney will give you the time and attention to help you resolve the case in an acceptable way, so that you can move past this event as quickly as possible.