>> RYAN: We're with David Shapiro. David is a criminal defense attorney, in San Diego, California and he has agreed to answer some questions related to charges of murder, homicide. Let's see. The first question, we'll go ahead and go into it. This one is directly to you. >> RYAN: What is your fee for a homicide defense? >> DAVID: My fee for a homicide defense will depend on many factors. It will depend on where the case is located, within Southern California or within San Diego. It will depend on what stage is the case; meaning has the case already gone to preliminary hearing? Is the case set for trial? Has the person even been arrested? It also depends on how many alleged victims there are of the homicide, double homicide, triple homicide, mass killing, one person, attempted murder. All of those things factor into it. Possible defenses, and in all honesty I need to evaluate the amount of work and the amount of commitment that it will take on my end for the case to be a success given the facts we are dealt with. Obviously, that would not be including experts, accident re-constructionists, anything and everything associated with the specifics of the murder case where the client agreed to bear those costs. Theoretically, we could go through the county for some of that money. There is no set number. There's really not. I could see, under the right set of circumstances, taking a murder case for, I don't know, 25 or 30 thousand dollars, and I could see, with the ideal situation, the most complicated of cases, multiples of hundreds of thousands of dollars. It all really depends. I understand that that is unreasonable for a large number of people out there, to be able to come up with that amount of money, given the seriousness of the case. If you have that money though you want to make sure you interview attorneys and make sure you hire the right one. Certainly, if you are within that range, financially, you don't want costs to be a prohibiting factor from hiring the attorney that you believe will do the best job for your loved one. >> RYAN: All right, next question. I dealt with an attorney for a DUI charge, but nothing ever this serious. If I were to hire your firm, would I work with you or another attorney directly? >> DAVID: Anybody who hires my firm, whether they are dealing with a traffic infraction, a DUI, or a case like murder, would be dealing with me. I would be the lead attorney on any and all cases. It is the Law Office of David Shapiro. The people that work at my office are representatives of me. There's always, from time to time, I might hire someone to appear or a colleague may appear on my behalf, but anything and everything substantive about the case, if I can be there, I will be. I am the attorney on record. You might be dealing with investigators. You might be dealing with experts. You might be dealing with law clerk assistants of mine, but any case that comes in through my firm, at least up until this date, which is April 15th, 2015, ironically five years to the day of when I opened the door. You will be dealing with me directly. >> RYAN: Excellent. This next question is my son was serving time and was involved in a homicide in jail. He is concerned, if he gets charged, his time is going to be extended significantly. The family is currently collecting money for an attorney. Do you work with clients already in jail? >> DAVID: Yes, absolutely. I think what's important to distinguish is that sometimes people commit relatively minor offenses in custody, and they may just get their release time extended a little bit or might lose their good time credit. They might go into the hole, so to speak, you know, solitary confinement, for a while, lose some jail privileges. Something like this, if they are accused of murder, that is going to be prosecuted, not internally in the jail. It is going to be prosecuted in state court, wherever the jail was. If it was the South Bay Jail, it is going to be 04:01.00 Courthouse. If it was at the downtown jail, it will be at the downtown courthouse in San Diego. If it was in the Vista Jail, it will be at the Vista Courthouse and so on and so forth. It would be prosecuted as if the alleged offense happened on the street. It is not uncommon. I have represented people who have been accused of committing crimes while in custody. Especially something like murder or extreme battery situations where somebody is really injured, attempted murder, mayhem, are not uncommon and it would definitely be in state court and it would definitely, at least 99 out of 100 times, any sentence imposed on that case will run consecutive to the term for what they are already in on. If they are in on a two-year or a 365 day sentence, and they get a new offense, they definitely are going to serve out that sentence and then the sentence they receive, if they are convicted on the new case, will start after the sentence on the current case expired. >> RYAN: Next question is my son is considering pleading out on a manslaughter charge but will still get some jail time. I would like to see if this is a good deal or not. Can you tell me and if so how much would you charge me for that? >> DAVID: That is a good question. A lot of times people call and say,I've been charged with this. I' been offered this. What do you think I should do? What I usually tell perspective clients like that, whether they are charged with petty theft or it's murder, attempted murder, a manslaughter offer, whatever the case may be, what I try to do in order to evaluate the case I can give you a general evaluating fee, but I want to really be able to evaluate the evidence. I tell my clients if they have a copy of their discovery, police reports, everything, get me a copy of it. I can look at that and we can do a negotiated hourly fee or a flat fee, depending on what we believe is in our mutual best interest. It is very difficult, sometimes, because you rely on what the potential client is telling you. Not to say that they are lying, but sometimes you get a full picture when you see the discovery and when you see the state of the evidence, versus what the client believes can be proven in court and you get a real good perspective of it. What I tell clients is to try and get a copy and send it over. Don't just call me and say that you have this case and they are offering you two years. What should you do? Come on. If I had the case all this time, I wouldn't be making a rash judgement or split second decision like that. I would have had the opportunity to examine the discovery, basically go over any and available defenses with you and see where we are at. I definitely get cases like that where I get hired as a second opinion, just like you would if you went to a doctor and the doctor said something you might not necessarily like. You want another qualified attorney to look at it. Either hourly or flat fee, it depends on the case and the discovery. It depends on how in depth you want me to get, but that is something we definitely do, from time to time, here. >> RYAN: Excellent. If you have any more questions for David all you need to do is post them down in the Comments section below. He's agreed to get back to you, typically within 48 hours. With that said, David thank you for your time. >> DAVID: Thanks so much. No problem. You guys e-mail questions and call the office, whatever you need. I'm really good at getting back to you, even if it is just to set up a time to speak in the future. I look forward to hearing from you all. Thanks so much.
