A charge is an accusation, not a verdict. You're presumed innocent, the burden never leaves the prosecution, and how hard that burden presses depends entirely on who stands next to you.
Plea bargaining is the market, and like any market it runs on leverage. Prosecutors extend their best offers to lawyers who can hurt them at trial — and their worst to lawyers who always fold. Hiring a trial lawyer is not about refusing every deal; it's about making sure every deal is priced against a real alternative. We prepare every case for a jury, and the State knows it. That preparation pays whether the case ends in dismissal, a favorable plea, or twelve citizens in a box.
The work starts immediately: bond arguments so you fight from home instead of a cell, preservation of footage and phones, our own witness interviews while memories are fresh, and suppression litigation where the stop, the search, or the statement crossed constitutional lines. Fourth and Fifth Amendment violations aren't technicalities — they are how the deck gets stacked, and unstacking it is the job. We defend cases in West Virginia and Ohio, in magistrate, municipal, circuit, and common pleas courts, and in federal court.
One thing before anything else: stop talking. Not to investigators, not to cellmates, not on jail phones, not on social media. Be polite, ask for a lawyer, and call us — the case you save will be your own.
Questions
Do you charge contingency fees for criminal cases?
No one may — contingency fees are prohibited in criminal matters. We quote a clear, flat or staged fee in writing before we start, so you know the cost going in.
Should I just take the first plea offer?
Not before someone who tries cases reads the discovery. First offers price in your fear, not the State's proof problems. Sometimes the first offer is genuinely good — you'll get an honest read either way.
Will a conviction really follow me?
Convictions ripple into jobs, licenses, housing, firearms rights, and immigration status. Part of our job is engineering outcomes — dismissals, diversions, deferrals, reductions — that protect the record you'll live with.
