Understanding When and How to Change Your Legal Representation
Are you dissatisfied with your legal representation and do you want to make a change? My name is Carl Birkhead. I’m an attorney with Wirth Law Office in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I’ve been practicing for family and Oklahoma criminal law about seven years and I want to help you make law easy by telling you a little bit about when and how to try to change your attorney.
I’m bringing this up because I saw something in court recently that just kind of spun me out. I’ve seen it a couple of other times. I’ve experienced it once or twice, at least some version of it. There was a gentleman in custody. He was being held in jail. I believe it was on a DUI or something. He had a public defender. He had a court-appointed attorney.
The Risks of Going Pro Se
He walks up to the podium, and says, “Judge, I’m firing my lawyer. I’m representing myself.” He looks at the public defender and she goes, “Well, yeah, he’s elected to go pro se at this point, so I just ask to be allowed to withdraw.” That’s a bad move. I don’t know anything about that situation. I don’t know what had been discussed ahead of time.
I do know that that guy, instead of getting out and getting the charges dropped like he thought, ended up having his bond doubled and he’s going to be staying in custody until his trial date now. Whatever was worked out, whatever chances that he had, they’re not as good now because he didn’t handle himself well. It’s not a criticism against him. He didn’t go to law school. He’s not trained like we are.
Handling Dissatisfaction with Your Attorney
Not every client is going to love every attorney. Not every relationship meshes. I get it. I’ve had a client who, right before a sounding docket for a trial, absolutely did not want my advice and didn’t like the way that I told him that the case was going to head, didn’t appreciate the fact that I was just trying to be very honest with him about his chances, walks into the courtroom, tells the judge that he wants to fire me, representing himself thereafter. It happens. It doesn’t always go well.
I don’t know what happened with that particular individual. I never really followed up on it. But if you’re in a situation where you’re not happy with your attorney, there are ways that you can do it. You can talk to their office ahead of a court appearance. You can just let them know, listen, I no longer want to use your services. I want to try to find something else.
Preparing for a Change in Legal Representation
My advice is if you’re going to do that, do that with enough time to find another attorney to represent you before you have to be in court next. I don’t ever want to see somebody in court just trying to do it on their own because they didn’t like how they worked with their attorney. It’s something I tell people a lot. You can represent yourself in court, but it’s kind of like performing surgery on yourself.
You can do it, and you might even survive, but it’s going to be a lot messier and a lot more painful and probably take a lot longer if you try to do it on your own instead of having someone there to help you. If you don’t like your current legal representation, make sure you give yourself time to find somebody that fits for you so that way you’re not hanging out to dry.
Take Action: Schedule a Low-Cost Initial Strategy Session
If you have any questions about this or if you’re thinking that you might want to make a change in your current representation, please give us a call. My name is Carl Birkhead. I’m with Wirth Law Office, and I want to help you make law easy. Contact us today at 918-879-1681 to schedule a low-cost initial strategy session and explore your legal options.
