Most of what decides a criminal case happens before anyone is in a courtroom: the records requested in the first week, the video preserved before it is recorded over, the hearing where the officer answers questions under oath for the first time, the motion that tests whether the stop was lawful. Hiring a lawyer is hiring that work. This page explains what that work is, how the fee is set, and how hiring works when a parent or someone else is paying.
What you are getting
A defense starts with the State’s evidence, all of it. Every report, every minute of body-camera and dash-camera video, the dispatch audio, the breath instrument’s calibration and maintenance records or the blood lab’s file, any warrant and the affidavit behind it. Those are requested at the start, and preservation letters go to any casino, hotel, bar, or business whose cameras may have recorded what happened, because private video is recorded over on the owner’s schedule.
Then the evidence is tested against the law. Was the stop justified? Did it last longer than the law allows? Was there probable cause to arrest? Was the test given the way the statute requires? Where the answer supports a motion, the motion gets filed, and where the State’s proof has a defect, the defect is documented and put in front of the prosecutor in writing. Each case is prepared as though it will be tried, because that is what gives every other option its value.
A flat fee is what makes that possible. Reviewing four hours of video, pulling a breath machine’s maintenance history, and writing a suppression motion are the work that changes outcomes, and the decision to do that work should never be a decision about the meter. You know the fee before the work starts, and the work the case needs gets done.
If the case ends in a sentence, the work continues there: a sentencing request built around the client’s job and life, a course and evaluation completed where the client lives when the law allows it, and, where it would help, connections to the substance-abuse counselors, treatment programs, and mental-health providers I work with. The client is responsible for their own recovery; my office is glad to make those connections.
The DMV hearing is included in every DUI
A Nevada DUI arrest starts two cases: the criminal charge and a license revocation at the DMV. The DMV hearing is part of every DUI case I take, not a separate fee. It matters for the license, and it often matters for the criminal case, because it can be the first time the officer answers questions under oath. When to request it is a decision made with the client early. The details are on Nevada DMV License Revocation After a DUI Arrest.
What the fee does not include
Some cases need outside help: an independent review of blood or breath evidence, an accident reconstruction, certified records from another state’s court, an interpreter, or a court’s filing fee. Those are costs, not fees, and they are agreed in advance before any are incurred.
What no lawyer can sell is a result. Nevada’s professional rules forbid a contingent fee for representing a defendant in a criminal case, and anyone who promises an outcome is promising something they don’t control. What the fee buys is a defense done fully.
If you are paying for someone else’s defense
Often the person reading this page is not the person who was arrested. It is a mother or father, a grandparent, an uncle, someone who got the call from the jail and is now trying to find a lawyer who will be good, effective, and actually care about the person they love. If that is you, you can hire FitzGerald Law and pay for the defense. Here is how it works, and why it works that way.
The person charged is the client. Nevada’s rules let a lawyer accept payment from someone other than the client only if the client gives informed consent, there is “no interference with the lawyer’s independence of professional judgment or with the client-lawyer relationship,” and the client’s information stays protected. A separate rule says a lawyer “shall not permit a person who recommends, employs, or pays the lawyer to render legal services for another to direct or regulate the lawyer’s professional judgment.” In plain terms: paying for the defense does not make you the client, and it does not let you steer the case.
That is a protection, and it protects the person you are paying for. The defense is built around what your son or daughter needs, not around what anyone else would prefer. What they tell me stays between us unless they decide otherwise. And the decisions that belong to a defendant by law, whether to plead guilty, whether to give up a jury trial, whether to testify, are theirs to make, with my advice.
What you will and won’t hear. You will know the fee, what it covers, and anything the client authorizes me to tell you. Many clients want their family included, and with their permission families are often part of the plan, from getting to court dates to getting into a program. What you won’t hear is anything the client has not agreed to share. The legal privilege protects what a client tells their lawyer, which is one reason I will ask to talk with them alone, and why it is better for the details of what happened to come to me from them directly rather than through you.
What you can do now. Gather what you have: the paperwork from the jail or the citation, the court date, the name of the arresting agency, and, if it is a DUI, whether the officer handed over a DMV order and a temporary license. Then call. Bail and getting someone out of the Douglas County jail are on Bail, Custody, and Getting Out of the Douglas County Jail.
The fee agreement is the starting line. Hire me now, and I’ll get to work. Call FitzGerald Law.