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Posted Feb 8th, 2012
We hired an attorney in September 2011 to handle a possesion of marijuana case for our son

Additional Details:
At the time we didn''t have information on the name of the arresting officer. We paid the attorney
and he took the case. After he received the information and the police report he told us that we
should just settle and not let this go to court and he knows the police officer and he is a good guy
they have a personal relationship and go hunting and fishing all the time. The police officer is
not able to produce a video tape from his car regarding the incident nor has any "evidence" been
returned from the crime lab. We are just having to rely on the police report and he is not even
attempting anything further since, in his word, "the cop is one of the good ones, I have a personal
relationship with him". At the point of knowing that the police officer was one of his personal
friends should he not have withdrew from the case or assigned another attorney. I feel that my son
is not be represented fairly.
Legal Topic Area: Criminal Law in GA | 2 Answers

1st Answer

It is not a necessity for the attorney to withdraw from a case unless his personal relationship with a witness affects his ability to properly handle the case. I have many friends who are police officers, but business is business. You have the right to hire another with whom you are comfortable with.


Answered on Feb 13th, 2012 at 9:12am


Other Answers

You have a right to hire another attorney. Your counsel may have personal information that allows him to know more about your case than other attorneys. For instance, the cop may be a very honest and straight forward cop. He may have a reputation of honesty that your attorney knows will benefit him in the courtroom. Knowing this your attorney may be saying we should get the best deal we can because it could get worse. It is not always a bad thing to have counsel that his a good relationship with the witnesses in their case.

On a side note, your son does have a right to a scientific test of the drugs in his case.

Thank you,

Andrew

Andrew R. Lynch

910 Church St., Suite 100

Decatur, GA 30030

Office 404-373-7735

Fax 404-378-3266

www.atlnotguilty.com


Answered on Mar 2nd, 2012 at 1:41pm