South Florida Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog
Federal criminal lawyers must be current with the explosive increase of Federal criminal laws, federal criminal procedures, federal criminal evidence and the inscrutable PACER Federal online document filing system. It is almost impossible to be an effective and competent lawyer in federal court unless the attorney devotes significant ongoing time keeping current with federal criminal law. Federal court is hobbled by arcane procedural rules, almost Byzantine local rules that overlay the federal criminal rules and procedures, and……it gets worse…… THIS ARTICLE CONTINUES ON PAGE TWO….
Federal judges have their own procedures and deadlines. If your Florida criminal lawyer isn’t appearing in federal court regularly, it is almost impossible to be on top of everything one needs to know to be an effective federal criminal lawyer in Florida. The prosecutors know who is good and which lawyers are “winging it”. Going into federal court on a wing and a prayer is a sure-fire recipe for disaster. Couple that with the fact that federal cases move faster than in Florida criminal courts. And then there is the mix…. Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach each have their own federal courthouses, but some of the judges, and most of the federal prosecutors, move between and among them, sometimes from day to day. It’s almost like the circuit courts of the 1800’s when judges “rode the circuit”. If your lawyer isn’t known by a Federal judge’s staff and judicial assistant; they can’t even get a phone call in without a court order. It’s not who you know, it’s the fact that a Florida federal criminal lawyer can’t function unless he or she is in almost daily contact with the federal judges and their staff.