Understand Your Lawyers' Specialty

By Amy E. Feldman

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Do you have a lawyer? How many?

Way back in 1994, the owner of a New Jersey auto body shop was arrested after his shop was raided by federal agents as part of a drug investigation. He called his lawyer, who had advised him in the past on matters related to his business. The lawyer met with the defendant and told him to cooperate with the police. As a result, he testified against his co-defendants and pled guilty to conspiracy, which earned him a two year jail sentence.

After that is when the real legal battle started because the lawyer he'd consulted was a business lawyer, not a criminal lawyer, so after his release the defendant sued his lawyer for legal malpractice, claiming he'd gotten bad advice.

More than twenty years after the fateful discussion between the defendant and the non-criminal lawyer, the New Jersey Supreme Court just decided that regardless of whether he could have gotten better advice, because the defendant hadn't been exonerated, he couldn't win the case against his lawyer.

Here's the thing. If you were having a heart attack, it wouldn't occur to you to go to a dentist just because you call the guy doctor. Lawyers also specialize. If you are facing a criminal charge, find a criminal lawyer. Don't just go to a guy you know who has a law degree hanging on his walls without asking: what is it you do all day?