Most criminal defense lawyers are busy defending those charged with heinous or unpleasant crimes. However, they do make an excellent source for writers who want to write realistic and/or gritty crime drama novels. If that is your thing, and you want your first novel to be a real winner, find a criminal defense lawyer who is willing to answer your questions about various laws and crimes. Here is how he/she can help:

The Law Library

For any question that your lawyer-compatriot cannot answer, he/she has a personal law library. It is several massive volumes of laws in your state, cross-referenced with each other in regards to legal findings and sentences. The legal aide in the office can show you how to use them, but you must first get permission from the criminal lawyer who has agreed to assist you with your novel.

Psychological Profiles

To write a good crime novel, you have to be able to view things from both a criminal perspective and a lawyer/legal perspective. You have access to the latter, but you will need the lawyer's help constructing a believable criminal. If you have chosen a criminal lawyer with several years of experience, then he/she has seen a number of true criminals with very strange behavioral patterns.

While the lawyer cannot reveal anything under lawyer/client privilege, he/she can still help you construct a believable criminal based on different psychological patterns of criminal behavior that he/she has encountered in real life. The lawyer may also be able to refer you to a forensic psychologist, who can help you develop a psychological profile for your made-up character.

Attending Open Hearings

In court proceedings, there are open hearings and closed hearings. Closed hearings are closed to the public; no one may enter the courtroom except for the parties involved in the hearing. There are things of a very sensitive nature in the case, so the public is banned.

However, open hearings allow the public to come in and take a seat. You may sit in on several criminal cases wherein the hearings are open for hearing and viewing. If your criminal lawyer-book partner is presenting some of these hearings, you may be able to attend the open ones and get an idea of how criminal court operates. That, too, can really help your book by providing realistic details for any courtroom scenes that play out in the pages of your book.

Contact a law office like Hutcoe Law for more information and assistance. 

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