Alabama Criminal Attorney

Alabama is an active state that has many criminal actions taking place and so therefore also has many criminal attorneys.  In American English, the term  lawyer is synonymous with licensed attorneys who practice law.  A criminal attorney is a lawyer, or legal practitioner, a person certified to give legal advice who advises clients in legal matters of a criminal nature. Some lawyers represent clients in courts of law and in other forms of dispute resolution.  Law is a theoretical and abstract discipline, and working as a lawyer represents the practical application of legal theory and knowledge to solve real problems or to advance the interests of those who retain or hire lawyers for legal services.  The role of the lawyer varies significantly across legal jurisdictions. A criminal attorney in Alabama therefore will have certain roles, and responsibilities depending on the law in the state.

Client Intake & Legal Advice

Before a lawyer can accept a client's case, he or she must interview the client and determine whether it is worth taking. Generally, there is no obligation to take a case, with the exception of public defenders, who must defend all indigent criminal defendants who cannot afford an attorney. The lawyer must also stay in regular contact with the client and advise them about the case's status and possible outcome.

Legal advice is the application of abstract principles of law to the concrete facts of the client's case in order to advise the client about what they should do next. In Alabama, criminal attorneys must only be a properly licensed lawyer that may provide legal advice to clients for good consideration, even if no lawsuit is contemplated or is in progress.  Therefore, even conveyancers and corporate in-house counsel must first get a license to practice, though they may actually spend very little of their careers in court. Failure to obey such a rule is the crime of unauthorized practice of law.

In other countries, jurists who hold law degrees are allowed to provide legal advice to individuals or to corporations, and it is irrelevant if they lack a license and cannot appear in court.

Criminal law in the United States

The criminal justice process begins with an alleged crime. A complainant makes an accusation, which is investigated by the police, acting as agents of the government. A formal charging document called a complaint or an indictment brought by a grand jury is filed with a court in the appropriate jurisdiction. If the offense is classified as a felony, the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States requires that a federal case be referred to a grand jury for an indictment. The Supreme Court has held that the right to a grand jury does not apply to the states. Therefore, each state has its own set of grand jury procedures. Some follow rules that mirror the federal system, but others make use of the indictment optional, and allow the prosecutor to file a complaint or information to formally charge the defendant with the crime.

The interests of the state are represented by a prosecuting attorney, while the interests of the defendant are represented by his defence attorney or by the defendant as pro se, acting as his own attorney. The Sixth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States guarantees a criminal defendant the right to a speedy and public trial, in both state and federal courts, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime was committed, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of Counsel for his defence.  Therefore in Alabama a criminal attorney is either hired or appointed.