Houston, Texas Criminal Defense Trial Lawyers

WHY NO "SPLIT FEES?" Many lawyers will charge one fee for a plea bargain and another fee for trial. At Bennett & Bennett, we avoid doing this. There are several reasons for our position. First, if you hire us but do not pay us to fight the case, we are going into court with one hand tied behind our back. If we are not being paid to put up a fight, the only thing left for us to do is plead with the government for mercy. The government, as you might guess, has little mercy. If you pay us up front to cover a trial, we can negotiate from a position of strength. We can use our time and resources to prepare for the possibility of trial, and develop a better bargaining position. Second, if you are faced with the choice of pleading guilty or paying additional attorney's fees, your choice cannot be entirely voluntary. In most cases, the decision whether to plead guilty is difficult enough without financial pressure. The other side of that coin is that a lawyer who stands to receive more money for going to trial has a potential conflict of interest with his client: trial may be in the lawyer's best interest, but not in the client's. While we at Bennett & Bennett are above this sort of conflict, we prefer that you not lead us into temptation. Finally, trials are what we are trained for. They are what we do best. They are what we love doing. By setting fees that account for the possibility of trial as well as of settlement, we hope to limit our clientele to those citizens accused who would rather put up a fight than give in to the government.