Proving My Innocence

Three Reasons Why You Should Hire Your Own Lawyer As A Witness

If you were the witness to a crime, there is a high likelihood that you will be called to witness. This can be in the form of a written witness statement, an interview with the police officers or detectives who were working the case, or you can be called to testify on the stand. If you are a witness for a criminal case, you need to hire your own attorney. Your attorney should be well versed in being a criminal defense attorney. Here are three reasons you need representation. 

Protection during interrogation

You will want a good criminal lawyer on your side when you are going through the process of being interrogated by the police. Many times detectives will press for information and may actually interview you several times in an attempt to see if you are hiding or withholding information. This can also be taken a step further and include looking into your background and digging around in your private life. You should have a lawyer advising you on how to cooperate and provide information to the police without your rights being infringed. 

The defense could name you as the perpetrator

The job of a criminal defense attorney is to provide their client with good representation and a good defense. In some cases, defense attorneys will name a person who was there during the commission of a crime as the true perpetrator. If the case involves a lot of he said, she said and has very few witnesses, the defense attorney could possibly try to finger you as the person who committed the crime. Hire your own defense attorney to help protect your interest and protect you from being named as possible perpetrator due to being a witness that was there during the crime. 

They can prepare you on how to testify

If you have never testified in court nor been a witness to a crime, testifying can be a harrowing event. Whether you are testifying for the prosecution or the defense, you will likely have one attempting to poke holes in your testimony. If you are anxious about witnessing, this can show on the stand. You want to come across as credible and honest. Your own defense attorney can help to prepare you for what to expect. They can go over your testimony and do mock witness interviews with you so that you can get acclimated to what you will experience when you are in court. This way when your court date comes, you can be calm, collected, and ready to face all sorts of questions. 


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