What is a typical 8 hour day for a criminal defense attorney?

Answer 1

A typical day begins with being in court in the morning. You handle whatever hearings and/or trial calls in the morning. A good amount of time is spent waiting in court for your case to be called. If your matters do not bleed into the afternoon (due to an overworked judge or because your matter-such as a trial-continues until the afternoon), you go back to your office to do client interviews, legal research, prepare motions, or prepare for an upcoming trial. If necessary, your evenings are also for preparing or for taking a trip to the jail to speak to detained clients. Some days are shorter; some days are longer. It really depends on your case load.

Answer 2

It is typically 10 to 14 hours, not 8. The day of the week matters!!! Usually, you spend either your mornings or your afternoons doing nothing but client interviews. 3 of those days, you spend the other time in preliminary hearings and at trial. 2 of those days, you spend the other time doing research and writing. You spend EVERY evening doing research and writing, and might even take late interviews if the prison allows you to be there at that time. That's a basic summing up of it. (Keep in mind, you usually have more clients than you have time, so you have to literally schedule time to use the restroom and eat.)

Answer 3

The ones I work with spend from 8:30 am to maybe noon in court. Sometimes they go back to court in the afternoons, sometimes not. The rest of the time they are surfing the net and writing investigation requests for the investigators to follow-up. By 4:30 pm you can't find one in the building. Sounds sarcastic......... but true.