| rev:text
| - I was arrested for speeding over 35 mph in a 65 mph zone. As an out of stater, I was frustrated to learn it is treated as a criminal speeding or class 3 misdemeanor in Arizona.
After talking to a dozen of people and searching the Internet, my frustration only grew up..
I learned that if I pleaded guilty, the violation will go on my criminal record.
Will it show up as a criminal speeding? Or a class 3 misdemeanor? Will it affect my employment? Those questions were not easy to answer.. In fact, I still don't know answers to them.. Even the lawyers I talked to weren't so sure with their answers.. it was one of these
- It's just a moving violation, it will show up as that on your criminal record, shouldn't lead to any complications
- It's a moving violation but it is classified as a misdemeanor crime, it may cause you troubles but we don't know for sure
- We are not even sure if the criminal record will classify the type of misdemeanor, saying it was just excess speeding.
Here are other examples of misdemeanor crimes on Google: petty theft, prostitution, public intoxication, simple assault, trespass, vandalism, discharging a firearm within city limits.
I decided to mitigate my risks of future legal complications with that case and started looking for a lawyer.
I got to hear a lot different voices on the phone.. And I classified them as follows,
- Not interested in the case
- Not confident they could win the case
- Not capable of establishing the lawyer - client connection and making me believe that at least they will try to win the case
And then I heard one of the lawyers from Corso and Rhude. Energetic and confident voice told me that even though they cannot guarantee success, they will make sure they will do everything possible to drop the charges, and here's how..
He carefully collected some information about me, to represent "a human being" not "a case".
He told me, 'I just wanna make the prosecutor see you as a normal, law-abiding guy who made a mistake'. It was very reassuring.. He described in steps how it works and what are my options. He patiently answered all my questions and in the end of the call I had a piece of paper with a detailed plan. I knew exactly what they are going to do and that put my mind at ease. Even though they operate in Phoenix, I was told they established connections with prosecutors throughout the state. They know them, they talk to them, they do business with them and have a pretty good share of cases resolved in favor of their clients.
During an informal review of my case with the prosecutor, my lawyer was able to negotiate dropping of my charges to a civil infraction. He said his client was very determined in having the criminal charges dropped and he'd sure go ahead and stand the trial if it doesn't happen. Now, here's the trick.. prosecutors may work with hundreds of cases at the same time and they are interested to reach an agreement in the plea bargain phase. That means not going to trial. Nobody likes going to trial.. It just sometimes the stakes may be high and trial is your only viable option.
He kept pushing further to make her agree to dropping points of my driver record.
'No way this is gonna happen' was the answer - 'He was doing over 100'.
He comes back to me, tells me the story and gives me two options. Either accept the deal or go to trial. He recommended not to go to trial because we've got a pretty fair deal but it was up to me.
The thing here is that they wouldn't have charged me anything had I decided to go to trial. It's in their best interests to cut you a deal before the trial. So I could've but fighting in the trial just for the points on your driver record would be downright stupid and I'm pretty sure I would've loose.. If not the case, then the time and money.
Standard fee for my case was $2,000 to be paid in advance. I was able to negotiate it down to $1,800 even though $2,000 was a very fair price on the market at that time.
This example of willing to negotiate coupled with the other examples above is the quintessence of being a good law firm.
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