Does anyone know of a good but not expensive criminal lawyer in Pittsburgh Pa?Maybe some who will do probono!?

Question:

I am looking for a lawyer for a family member who was wrongfully accused of a crime they did not commit and who the judge admitted and the prosecuting attorney that the case was weak. The family member is a good kid who was finishing school, the only reason that it has gone this far is because the accusing person was getting revenge on another person a used my family member to do it. They prosecution dropped the major charges, but they got my family member to take a plea. The judge came off the bench and said even though the major charges have been dropped we can't let you walk out of here with nothing(instead of ten years the judge is giving him nine months.What judge does that, when all of the evidence pointed that he was innocent. However my family member was scared and took the plea. Now the lawyer that we had did not tell us he was not a criminal lawyer and did not specialize in this type of case. We paid him 15 thousand dollars, now he says he is done. We really need a new lawyer

Answer:
This is not a joke, but, consider your options through the Public Defender's Offie. Often these lawyers are considered new recruits or at the very least unambitious attorneys. However in every Public Defender's office you have a small percentage of lawyers who are vey good and work there because they truly believe people with little or no money are entitled to have as good a defense as the rich. These attorneys are often on a first name basis with judges and know their tendancies. There are many forms to fill out and the process takes time but it might be worth your while to see if they give you someone credible.

Let me also say this. Plea agreements in general are incredibly hard to overturn because the defendant admits in court, under oath to the crime. It's not impossible, but you would have to prove two things to take inferior counsel angle.

1) That your previous lawyer committed fraud in relaying his experience to you. It's not enough to say he didn't tell me. His cases (for the most part) are a matter of public record and its up whoever hired him to research his background before hand.

2) Then you have to somehow show that he strongly encouraged your client to take the plea.

Both of thes angles are going to be extremely difficult to prove and even then the judge may not decide to set aside the plea agreement. Even if he does, that just puts you at square one and the case will be retried depending on whether the DA's office decides to move forward with it.

My personal feelings are that 6 months (which is the actual time he'll probably end up doing) is not the end of the world and can be spent improving oneself even while incarcerated. There is always the option of getting his name cleared and record expunged at a later time.

Deac

Does anyone know of a good but not expensive criminal lawyer in Pittsburgh Pa?Maybe some who will do probono!?

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