Disclaimer: This article is in response to questions frequently asked of Mr. Cobb and is an unedited dictation transcript. Just like talk to text on your smartphone, there may be misspelled words or sentence fragments.

Hiring a legal team to defend a criminal case actually costs less than hiring a single lawyer, but legal fees and costs should be clearly explained by the lawyer during the initial consultation. Hiring a legal team costs less for the same reason that an automobile would cost less if it were mass produced as opposed to being built one at a time by a single person. There are economies of scale and economies of resources, and the most important resource that a criminal defense lawyer has is time. The second most important resource would probably be their mind. In other words, it’s important to have a sharp legal team composed of members who have enough time to handle a case correctly. By breaking up a particular case into its component parts by utilizing different members of a team, the re-assembly in order to make the case more favorable for the client may look different between the lawyers. That is not a bad thing; in fact, it’s the precise thing we are looking for.

One lawyer may have a certain view of how a case will unfold, while the other member of the legal team may have a completely different one. The reason that this is exciting and important as opposed to negative is the fact that it allows for more options and the second set of eyeballs looking at the case. Ultimately, that will produce the best strategy between the lawyers involved. I have no ego when it comes to defending a client’s legal interest. Earlier, I was asked a question that caused me to speak a little bit about a case that I handled with co-counsel in which there was a reversal of a conviction on appeal. I made the objection, but it was my co-counsel who observed the error. This type of thing happens routinely when a team is working on a case. Since it requires less time, it becomes more cost-effective for the client.

There is an old story about two horses at a county fair that will illustrate this point about cost-effectiveness. In the story, the horses were pulling sleds with weight for a competition. The winner pulled over 1,100 pounds, and the horse that came in second pulled in just over 1,000 pounds. People made bets on which horse would win and wanted to make another bet. They decided to put both horses together to see how much weight they could pull. Some skeptics in the crowd said they could only pull the sum of what they had pulled individually, which was around 2,100 pounds. Other people thought that they could pull 2,200 or 2,300 pounds. When the two horses were actually put together and were pulling at the same time, they could pull over 3,200 pounds. This example is analogous to the practice of law, medicine, and other types of endeavors. It shows that when people work as a team, there are more effective results and is not as expensive.

When looking to hire a criminal defense attorney, it is important to pay very close attention to whether they will be hiring a team dedicated to helping them or a solo practitioner who will be underpowered, overloaded, and unable to produce the best results possible.

Disclaimer: This article is in response to questions frequently asked of Mr. Cobb and is an unedited dictation transcript. Just like talk to text on your smartphone, there may be misspelled words or sentence fragments.

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