In Texas, driving without a seatbelt is a criminal offense. You can be arrested for driving without a seatbelt, and taken to jail. If this happens, or if you just get a ticket, you have all of the rights guaranteed in criminal cases -- the right to remain silent, the right to a jury trial, the right to confront your accusers, and the right to present witnesses. You also have the right to counsel. You can hire a lawyer to get you a jury trial for not wearing a seatbelt.

Lawyers who represent people on traffic offenses like that are criminal defense lawyers. Some of them have hundreds, if not thousands, of jury trials under their belts. But I wouldn't necessarily hire one of them to represent a loved one accused in federal court.

Why not? Because there are three major differences between federal criminal court and state court.

First, and most obviously, the law is different. A lawyer who has represented thousands of people on traffic ticket doesn't necessarily know the first thing about federal drug conspiracies, federal wire fraud cases, or any other federal criminal matters.

Second, the rules are different. Federal courts are run the same way all over the U.S., but they are run differently than state courts. The lawyer who practices only in state court doesn't necessarily know how the stages of federal cases proceed from arrest through sentencing.

Third, and most importantly, the stakes are different. If you're convicted of the traffic offense, you might be fined up to $500. If you're convicted of a federal drug conspiracy, you might be facing a five-year or ten-year mandatory minimum sentence, with a possible exposure right up to a life sentence, millions of dollars in fines, and no parole. A lawyer who is used to trying traffic tickets might be intimidated by the heavy time his client might get if convicted in federal court.

A traffic ticket lawyer is the extreme example. Many of the lawyers I see in federal court are there for the first time after practicing in state court for years. For these people, there are many harsh surprises in the course of representing a federal defendant, starting with the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and the detention hearing and ending with the pitfalls of the Sentencing Guidelines Manual. Every federal criminal lawyer has to start getting experience somewhere, but it doesn't have to be with you. When you're looking for representation for yourself or a loved one charged with a federal crime, you'll probably want to try to make sure that whoever you hire knows his way around a federal case.

How much federal experience is enough, and how do you know if a lawyer has enough? That's hard to say -- I can't define a competent federal criminal lawyer, but I know one when I see one. Without much experience in federal court, you may have difficulty separating the dedicated professionals from the neophytes and amateurs.

A good question to ask might be, "how many federal criminal jury trials have you had?" A truthful answer to this question will tell a lot. Since most federal criminal cases are resolved without trials, chances are that the lawyer who has tried three or more federal criminal jury trials will have handled many more. A lawyer who has tried none, one or two either has handled few federal criminal cases (and is still learning his craft) or has handled many, and is averse to going to trial.

(Remember, though, what I said about trust. Even the lawyer who is just learning his craft will do a good job for you if you trust him and give him the opportunity to help.)

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Mark.

This page is a work in progress. If you'd like to discuss federal criminal lawyers, please contact me