NJ Defending Personal Injury Attorneys in Criminal Investigations
When a personal injury attorney is being accused of serious crimes, like defrauding their vulnerable clients, the outcome can be bleak indeed. If after a criminal investigation the lawyer is found guilty, they can be given actual jail time amounting to years and possibly decades behind bars.
This is one reason why personal injury attorneys accused or being criminally investigated with fraud, theft, forgery or other crime should immediately get in touch with experienced NJ defending personal injury attorneys that have a background in successfully litigating these kinds of serious criminal investigation cases.
The Risks Are Too High to Neglect Retaining a Criminal Investigations Lawyer
Some successful personal injury attorneys make the dire mistake of brushing off any criminal accusation from a former client. All too often, these lawyers assume that the worst case scenario will consist of disciplinary action from the state bar association or similar consequence. The truth is that these lawyers could be in danger of seeing long months, years and perhaps even decades of jail sentences spent inside a prison with other hardcore criminals that they may have even represented unsuccessfully in the past.
A Zealous Legal Defense Is Not Grounds for Breaking State Bar Laws & Regulations
All too often, attorneys who have been successful in defending their clients against a variety of serious criminal charges become too assured of their talents inside of a courtroom. Unfortunately, even a zealous and well-intentioned legal defense strategy does not give the attorney legal grounds for breaking the serious state bar regulations that oversee an attorney’s scope of practice and/or related state laws governing how an attorney should act in pursuing those all-important legal wins.
Types of Criminal Charges That Attorneys Can Be Held Liable For
In the vast majority of these types of legal cases filed against personal injury lawyers, the issue typically involves a client’s accusations of misuse of their clients financial funds or mishandling of said monies during the course of the trial. Additionally, it is also common for a past client to accuse an attorney of closing their legal case without the accused party’s explicit consent to do so.
Judges & Juries May Side With Vulnerable Clients Like Immigrants
Sadly, there are some unscrupulous lawyers who do mishandle case details on behalf of their vulnerable clients. Many are immigrants who do not speak English well or have the ability to read lengthy and complex legal documents before signing. Some attorneys without character even forge their client’s signatures in order to get their hands on the resulting hefty settlement fees. Judges and juries today are more inclined to side with these kinds of vulnerable clients.
What To Do When a Client Accuses Their Attorney of a Crime?
It is important for personal injury lawyers falsely accused of some type of fraud or other crime by a current or past client to take the allegation seriously. Even if the charges seem ludicrous, just the question of fraudulent activity can ruin a lawyer’s and their law firm a bad reputation in their community where they work. These types of allegations should be thoroughly investigated right away to deter these clients from continuing their false claims in the public eye.
A Law Firm’s Engagement Agreement With Client Is Key
Since the majority of cases brought against a personal injury lawyer are likely to involve the misuse of funds from the client, it is imperative that law firms have a clear engagement agreement that spells out their intended handling of any client funds throughout and beyond the legal proceedings. This document should clearly outline attorney’s fees like how much, when and other details that the lawyer is entitled to a portion of the client’s end settlement agreement.
Play It Safe by Contacting a Reliable Attorney Beforehand
Due to the high scrutiny of these financial documents, it is always a good idea to run these documents and other proof of innocence by another capable NJ attorney seasoned in criminal investigations brought against personal injury lawyers first. A clerical error or other issue could be present. Contact Spodek Law Group online via https://www.njcriminalattorneys.com for further information.