Defendants should hire lawyers from districts where their cases are pending. If they want to see their lawyers they can in a matter of hours. If they want to see their out of district lawyers, it may take a day or two, maybe even a week.
Of course no defendant thinks of that when he is deciding to retain a lawyer, and the lawyer won’t tell him because he doesn’t want to lose the case. But the client quickly realizes it when he gets to the district and everyone is seeing his in-district lawyer regularly.
Take a lawyer from Miami who has a client in New York, and the client wants to see him. That lawyer has to go to Miami international airport, catch a plane, hope there are no delays that will get him caught in “the count” and when he gets to New York, he has to be concerned with getting back to the airport in time to take his return flight. If he cannot get in before the “count” it could throw off his whole schedule. If he has case in Miami the next day, he may have to adjourn it—if he can. How many times is a defense attorney going to want to make a trip like that? And the last thing a client wants is an unhappy lawyer representing his interests.
Save yourself the time, expense and frustration. Hire local unless you are in the boondocks where lawyers are scarce. There are no shortage of good lawyers in Miami, New York, Houston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Take advantage of what they offer: familiarity and access.
Let’s face it, you wouldn’t hire a lawyer from Bogota if you had a case in Medellin? You wouldn’t hire a lawyer from Mexico City if you had a case in Guadalajara?
– David Zapp