He can tell the lawyer he'd just like to retain him for pre-trial services for now, so the retainer will be a lot less (should be under $5K). Pre-trial where charges can be dropped or minimized is a critical phase that a good private attorney -- someone specializing in criminal defense and hopefully a former public prosecutor in that jurisdiction -- will be most effective at. If a trial can't be avoided, he can later switch to a public defender if he's out of money. Icarus |