When is it too late to fire your lawyer and get a new one due to conflict of intrest? -

Tomorrow my husband gets sentenced in a case and we just found out that his brother and his mother have sued the lawyer that is representing my husband, causing an obvious conflict of intrest. We need to know when it s too late to get a new lawyer if we feel his present one is not going to bat for him due to outside circumstances.

I am afraid it is to late. If anything they will just hire another attorney for his sentencing phase, but if the attorney did not know about the situation and neither did your family (obviously) then the judge probably will not let something so minor interfere with the sentencing. If your husband wishes to represent himself the judge will probably have him sign a waiver and then the sentencing phase will continue. Sentencing phase is not the quot;REALquot; time to need a lawyer.. because of structured sentencing the judge has a guideling of sentencing that he has to go by anyway based upon any aggrevating or mitigating factors.

Ask another lawyer. A conflict of interest can cause a mistrial. You have to prove it. Did the conflict arise before, during, or after the trial ended? If after it was over, you re done. If not, your lawyer could get sanctioned, or disbarred, if he knew about it before hand

Odds are that will probably have to wait for an appeal

It is not an obvious conflict of interest, but it is a potential conflict. There is no law absolutely saying what is too late but if you wait until the last minute the judge might believe that it is coming up just for purposes of delay. The sooner the better.

Couple of things here... have you actually asked the attorney if that factored into his actions? Maybe not. If he s being sentenced, at this point all you can do is use it for a grounds for an appeal, but I have to tell you, if the defense attorney says it didn t create a conflict, it s unlikely the court would see it your way. In many small towns there are lawyers that have done something with almost everyone at one time or another, and if they say they can let it go and represent their client, the courts have sided with them.