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.
The Cobb Criminal Defense Law Firm, PLLC—unlike other criminal defense law firms—assigns a minimum of two lawyers and one staff member to all criminal defense cases. Additionally, if testimony prior to trial is needed, then a court reporter will be added to the team, as well as a process server who will deliver subpoenas for pre-trial depositions.
Take a moment and imagine what it must be like in an operating room when someone is going through a surgical procedure for their heart; there will be a lead surgeon who will actually do the most important parts of the surgery and another surgeon who will perform other parts of the surgery. In virtually every single heart surgery, there will also be an anesthesiologist. The anesthesiologist will not do what the lead surgeon does, and the lead surgeon will not do what the other surgeon does. Just like a surgical procedure involves more than one health professional, every criminal defense case should involve more than one lawyer. This is just one example of how we do things differently.
A simple phrase that encompasses all of what Florida Legal Group does to help clients and their families is this: the defense system is a secret. The individual lawyers are not superheroes and they are not the secrets. However, the systems used are a combination of several sub-systems designed for each facet of every type of criminal case. The importance of the coping with stress during criminal prosecution sub-system was demonstrated in the courtroom when someone traded four years of probation for 45 years in state prison; they made that decision simply because their mind was not in the right place.
I have been through jury trial proceedings where I watched particular phases of the trial involving other lawyers, and during many of those trials, details would be revealed on the witness stand or in the form of evidence exhibits that were unforeseen by the defense team. Why were they unforeseen by the defense team? Why were they surprised? The answer is this: there was no defense team, and there was no second set of eyeballs looking at everything.
One of the best examples of the importance of a defense team happens to come from an actual sex offense trial that I conducted with another lawyer many years ago. At the close of the trial, it was obvious that the client would lose because the judge would not allow much of the evidence that we had planned to present. Nevertheless, after closing arguments had concluded and the jury went back to deliberate, the other lawyer in the case noticed that the person selected to be an alternate juror went back with the actual jurors and that the juror who was not the alternate was kept out of the jury deliberations by the state. When co-counsel notified me of this, I promptly made an objection. The judge then questioned the person who should not have been sent back and decided to allow deliberations to continue.
Although the client was convicted in a case that never should have gone to trial in the first place, the conviction and sentence of 15 years in state prison were reversed on appeal. That occurred not because I was a superhero lawyer in the courtroom, but because we have a system (and have had it for quite some time) designed to detect those things during the trial so that they don’t slip away. In this particular case, it spared someone a 15-year sentence because the appellate court remanded the case for a new trial after reversal. Sure enough, a deal was later cut for time already served on probation. That is just one example of the importance of a system and how these types of systems work.
One other aspect to consider is that lawyers have to be in court very often when handling criminal cases. No client or family member should want for their loved one to have just one lawyer who is overloaded and stressed out. Lawyers who have no assistance when working on criminal defense cases often end up busier and more overworked than underpaid public defenders. I have nothing against public defenders. In fact, I practiced as one for many years, so I know that their workloads are deliberately set far too high by the state legislature in order to rig the system in favor of the prosecution. By hiring a skilled criminal defense legal team, the playing field can be leveled, which means defendants can have a fair chance in the courtroom.
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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