Kansas Criminal Defense Lawyers

Perhaps the most critical decision you make when charged with a crime is who to hire as your criminal defense attorney. You need a lawyer who you can trust to aggressively defend the charges and evaluate all defenses. You also need someone who will candidly tell you if you should take a plea offer. If you end up at a sentencing, you need an attorney who does much more than go through the motions; you need someone who will put on evidence, obtain evaluations, and fight for the judge’s sympathy. A good defense attorney can be the difference between prison and a notguilty verdict or probation.

Our attorneys aggressively defend cases in federal, state and municipal courts. We have experience defending a wide array of cases, including violent crimes, sex crimes, drug crimes, and fraud. Our attorneys regularly handle high-profile cases covered by the press. But no case is too small. We bring the same aggressive approach to misdemeanor charges. The same attorney who handles a multi-week federal fraud trial can be found defending a misdemeanor municipal trial the next week. We like to win, no matter the venue.

We are well regarded by judges and other attorneys, as reflected in peer review ratings in the Martindale Hubbell® Bar Register of Pre Eminent Lawyers, U.S. News & World Report's Best Law Firms, Chambers USA’s The World's Leading Lawyers, Best Lawyers in America, and Thomson Reuters' Super Lawyers®.

Representation during an investigation

The moment you recognize that you are the target of a criminal investigation, you need an attorney. Representation during an investigation is critical. Invoking your right to counsel prevents police from using your words against you. The FBI, for example, has a policy that prohibits recording interviews. The only report of what you say to the FBI will be a report made by an agent whose goal may be to convict you of a federal crime.

Defense counsel can try to persuade prosecutors not to file charges. We can ask for notification when charges are filed to avoid police executing an arrest warrant at your home or work. We can arrange for bail and walk you through the process.

Court proceedings before trial

There are a great deal of opportunities to win a case before a jury trial. None should be passed by. Evidence can be suppressed because it was obtained in violation of your rights. There may have been errors in the way the evidence was processed or stored. Prosecution experts can and should be challenged. Motions should be filed that attack the way the prosecution intends to present its case to a jury. Your attorney should have a strong command of the rules of evidence and be ready to challenge the admission of evidence. Cases have been won by defense attorneys being prepared for such an opportunity.

Plea offers

Virtually everyone faces a decision of whether to go to trial or accept a plea offer. This can be a difficult and gut-wrenching decision. You need an attorney who will give you candid advice about your chances of winning at a jury trial. At this critical point, you do not want your attorney thinking about how the decision impacts his pocket book. That very problem is created when an attorney charges a flat-fee in a major criminal case. We will not do that. Instead, we charge hourly for work actually performed. With us, you will never wonder if your attorney is thinking about money when telling you that you should take a plea instead of going to trial.

Trial

No matter what case you take to trial, you want a well-respected trial attorney who has won major criminal jury trials. There are plenty of attorneys who have taken a large number of cases to jury trial. That does not tell you much. How many have they won? Did they just go through the motions or was there a serious defense mounted?

Perhaps the only way to evaluate a trial attorney’s courtroom skill is to look at what judges and other attorneys think of their ability. Various entities exist that provide such peer review ratings. Please feel free to research our ratings.

Sentencing

If your case concludes with a plea agreement or guilty verdict, you must proceed to sentencing. The vast majority of sentencing hearings are less than 30 minutes and entail attorneys and judges simply going through the motions. The only time that you will find our attorneys participating in such a hearing is when there is an agreement in advance of sentencing that gets us the result we want. A contested sentencing hearing should include evidence. The judge should be provided with a sentencing memorandum, letters, and expert reports. Testimony by witnesses is often appropriate. A good attorney considers a sentencing hearing as important as a jury trial.