Jacksonville Criminal Defense Attorneys dedicate their careers to helping criminal defendants acheive favorable outcomes in criminal cases. However, we cannot win every case. In some cases, a Jacksonville Criminal Defendant will be sentenced to serve time in jail or prison. Not only is this disappointing to the Jacksonville Criminal Defense Attorney that fought to keep the client out of jail, but it devastates the client’s family.
Imagine that a husband and father of four is sentenced to 13 months in Florida State Prison. He is the sole provider for the family. His wife only has a high school education and has spent the past 10 years raising his children. She has three children in school and one toddler at home. Now, that her husband is gone. She must go back to work. She must pay for daycare and try to pay the bills on her own. She tries to find a job, but due to her lack of further education and experience, she cannot find a job that will cover her mortgage payment. Thus, her home becomes the subject to a foreclosure action. Now, she and her four children are going to be homeless.
As a Jacksonville Criminal Defense Attorney, I have learned that representation of a criminal defendant does not always stop when the criminal case closes. Often, the Jacksonville criminal defendant’s family needs representation for a foreclosure case or drafting of estate planning documents or a durable power of attorney. Thus, Jacksonville Criminal Defense Attorneys should be familiar with other areas of practice or be prepared to refer the case to an attorney that practices in those fields.