LAR'S WIFE
03-23-2005, 01:52 PM
Hello everyone,
I need some help for my hubby. Can anyone refer us to a good criminal appeals attorney? I 'm gonna be completely honest trying to understand Texas law is very hard for me and my husband is no better at it. :confused: Our ignorance may have cost him precious time for appealing, we're really not sure. He has been in TDC for over 4 years now, because he copped a very bad plea from a lawyer we thought knew what he was doing and was advising him correctly. :angry: :o
But now many days late and thousands of dollars short, we've come to believe due to a librarian in my husbands unit that we got a very raw deal. I was referred to an appeals attorney who looked at my husbands case and agreed that he should not be in there at all, largely in part to a tape of the so-called victim blackmailing him (that the original atty. never even brought up to the prosecution. when bargaining for the plea). Unfortunately, that appeals atty. though he seemed very good, I checked him out on the State Bar's website, I found out he is not eligible to practice in Texas due to lack law credits required by the Bar every year. I spoke with the atty. about it he said he was only lacking 7 of the 15 credits, but had administrative permission to practice, however, he would go ahead and get them because he does need to get them and he really wanted to handle our case. I called the State Bar to find out if he had complied and if he could in fact practice for such a minor thing. I was told by them that he had not completed the required credits and that there was no such thing as admin. permission. He was in fact practicing illegally and I could report he if I wanted to do so. :angry:
Needless to say I did not retain his services. Now I'm afraid of being taken in by another atty., (regardless to if they are eligible to practice or not), who knows we don't know much about this whole process and may prey on us and the limited funds we have managed to save for an appeal.
I guess my long way of asking this question is how do I find out, not from the atty., but some kind of governing organization (which one if there is one) 1) if the atty. is qualified to handle this type of criminal appeals, 2) what their record (win/ lose) is, 3) what is an approx. price range, 4) what is the process and our role in it, how long should it typically take, and what do we need to supply? I've heard that since the case was originally done in the Dallas/ Ft. Worth area, it would be best to seek an outside the area atty. somewhere as far as Houston, is this true also?
As you can see we really, really need good advice. If anyone can help us we would appreciate it a lot. Thank you in advance!! :)
I need some help for my hubby. Can anyone refer us to a good criminal appeals attorney? I 'm gonna be completely honest trying to understand Texas law is very hard for me and my husband is no better at it. :confused: Our ignorance may have cost him precious time for appealing, we're really not sure. He has been in TDC for over 4 years now, because he copped a very bad plea from a lawyer we thought knew what he was doing and was advising him correctly. :angry: :o
But now many days late and thousands of dollars short, we've come to believe due to a librarian in my husbands unit that we got a very raw deal. I was referred to an appeals attorney who looked at my husbands case and agreed that he should not be in there at all, largely in part to a tape of the so-called victim blackmailing him (that the original atty. never even brought up to the prosecution. when bargaining for the plea). Unfortunately, that appeals atty. though he seemed very good, I checked him out on the State Bar's website, I found out he is not eligible to practice in Texas due to lack law credits required by the Bar every year. I spoke with the atty. about it he said he was only lacking 7 of the 15 credits, but had administrative permission to practice, however, he would go ahead and get them because he does need to get them and he really wanted to handle our case. I called the State Bar to find out if he had complied and if he could in fact practice for such a minor thing. I was told by them that he had not completed the required credits and that there was no such thing as admin. permission. He was in fact practicing illegally and I could report he if I wanted to do so. :angry:
Needless to say I did not retain his services. Now I'm afraid of being taken in by another atty., (regardless to if they are eligible to practice or not), who knows we don't know much about this whole process and may prey on us and the limited funds we have managed to save for an appeal.
I guess my long way of asking this question is how do I find out, not from the atty., but some kind of governing organization (which one if there is one) 1) if the atty. is qualified to handle this type of criminal appeals, 2) what their record (win/ lose) is, 3) what is an approx. price range, 4) what is the process and our role in it, how long should it typically take, and what do we need to supply? I've heard that since the case was originally done in the Dallas/ Ft. Worth area, it would be best to seek an outside the area atty. somewhere as far as Houston, is this true also?
As you can see we really, really need good advice. If anyone can help us we would appreciate it a lot. Thank you in advance!! :)