Attorney Fees and Misdemeanor Appeals

If you have a misdemeanor, you need to be sure you know what you are paying for when you hire an attorney. Before I explain what you should be looking for, let me back up a couple steps and explain how misdemeanors work in Virginia’s court system.

Misdemeanors are generally tried in the lowest level of Virginia courts, the General District Court. If you are found guilty in a General District Court, you have the right as a matter of law to appeal your case to the next level. This appeal must be done within ten days of the General District Court conviction. The court at the next level is called the Circuit Court. When you appeal to the Circuit Court, your case is heard de novo. This means that you get a completely new trial. It’s a free second bite at the apple.

Now how does this tie in with picking an attorney? Well, you want to know how your attorney is going to charge for appealing to the Circuit Court. Some attorneys charge you by the hour, which means that they will want to spend as much time as possible on your case to rack up the bill. It is much more common among criminal attorneys to charge a flat fee for services. Many criminal attorneys will charge you a larger fee up front to cover the possibility of needing to make two appearances, once in General District Court and once in Circuit Court. They will charge you that fee even if you decide to not appeal your case.

At Fidelity Law Firm, we believe it is fairer to the client to break up the fee, and charge individually for the General District Court and Circuit Court trials. That way, if you are happy with the resolution of your case in General District Court, you have paid only as much as you needed to. If you need to appeal, then an additional fee is charged, but you are no worse off than if you had paid a larger fee up front. Call Fidelity Law Firm today to see how we can help you.