How To Find The BEST Gun Lawyer For You, In Less Than 2 Hours

Call it good or bad I've had the opportunity to work with dozens and dozens of various types of attorneys in my career. When I talk to concealed carriers about the importance of having an attorney to represent them in firearm related incidents I often spend more time explaining why than I do explaining HOW. The HOW of finding the attorney is just as important.

This article will help you understand what to look for, where, and why. You can also download our free Gun Attorney Interview Checklist — a printable worksheet with 25 questions to ask, room to write down every answer, and a scorecard for comparing the attorneys you interview. Remember this lawyer will be a critical part of your firearm defense team. They are as important as your CPA, your firearms instructor or your personal trainer. You want to find the right person, and know that he or she will be there when you need it.

With that in mind I would like to discuss how you can determine if your attorney is the best one to represent you.

Why You MUST Have A Gun Lawyer If You Own A Gun

Today's gun owners cannot afford to wade out into public with a legal firearm concealed or open without having given some significant amount of thought to having a quality and appropriate attorney ready to call should a firearm related incident occur.

There are no drivers on American roadways who operate a car under the impression that they will NEVER get into a car accident. All of us as responsible drivers accept the possibility and inevitability that we will likely get into a car accident. That doesn't keep us off the road. Instead we purchase insurance to limit our risk.

For the same reasons any gun owner who intends to have access to a gun and use it in a self-defense situation should take steps to minimize that inherent risk.

So you need to take two key steps…

First, finding and retaining in advance the best possible attorney to represent your interests in a firearm related legal incident.
Second, finding and securing financial insurance to minimize the out of pocket expense associated with defending ones actions in criminal or civil court.

Please note, having some really quality gun lawyer insurance isn't enough… you also need to have the attorney pre-selected and ready to call.

Lastly, as you start this search it's important to know that you might have a lot of gaps in your knowledge and some of this may make you uncomfortable.

Why?

Well, you're entering the same realm as the people you are trying to protect your family from by owning a firearm.

The type of lawyer you'll be talking with is likely a criminal defense attorney.

As a responsible gun owner, you are likely a law abiding citizen, who has little or no experience with this area of law other than what you've seen in movies and TV. It can be a little uncomfortable for someone who is a patriot and upholder of laws, to talk to a criminal defense lawyer, just remember that they are there to defend you and prove that you are innocent not a criminal.

While you are innocent until proven guilty, if you do need legal defense related to your gun, you'll most likely be in criminal courts, in front of criminal judges, and next to criminals in the court room. You definitely want to have someone who has helped, even tried those real criminals on your side when you need them. So get comfortable with the fact that you are dealing with the criminal world, and this won't be a simple “which contract should we use” lawyer.

Finally, most lawyers are not anywhere near as intimidating or “scary” as we might think.

What Kind of Lawyer Do You Need and Where Will You Find Them?

There seem to be endless places to find lawyers online. There are directories everywhere, most people start with a google search and you end up finding someone fairly easily that way.

In a moment I'll tell you exactly what to search for. Before I do, you should know online directories and google listings have 2 significant drawbacks.

First, they tend to highlight most the attorneys who spend the most on advertising and that will always be attorneys focusing on personal injury, auto accidents, and workers compensation.

These are the ambulance chasers and civil litigation kings of the legal profession and most are ill equipped to help you with a firearm related criminal charge. You are looking for a Criminal Defense attorney that specializes in firearm related case law.

Worse, those who are “criminal defense” attorneys, spending money on advertising or rankings, are usually not gun law specialists. They want to charge you a flat fee when you're in a pinch to handle a DUI or a traffic ticket or other very common types of criminal defense incidents.

Second, these websites do not give you any context about the attorney's specific emphasis, if any, on firearm related law.

Instead of looking in the phone book (physical or digital) you may be far better off to look to local firearm industry contacts for recommendations.

Your firearm instructor, gun club, and local chapter of the NRA are probably more informed about the best attorneys in the area.

The NRA keeps a list of attorneys who have identified themselves as willing to consider firearm related cases. This list of attorneys is available free of charge to NRA members. For assistance in obtaining a referral from the NRA please call (703) 267-1161

If you already carry a self-defense legal service membership, most of those programs maintain their own directory of vetted attorneys. That's a good place to start — but you should still qualify anyone on that list yourself.

If you do decide to search, just type this into google:

“{Your City} Firearm Lawyer”

Now, you may be tempted to search for criminal defense attorney with gun specialty or something like that. It's going to cause you a lot of extra work, because you'll get every DUI guy in the book. Lawyers who specialize in Firearm law use words like firearm on their websites and are easier to spot. While you may not see many good results, the actual lawyer websites you do find will be more relevant as you're searching for something less common.

How To “Interview” A Gun Lawyer For Free

Ok, you've asked some people you can trust for referrals, searched the NRA directory and possibly identified a few lawyers through google search. It's time to see who is right for you.

Think of this as a part of your training. You need to be accustomed to and prepared to talk to lawyers. We recommend that even if you have “the guy” already, you should still talk with 2 or 3 lawyers close to you, so you're able to get a feel for how they would handle things if and when you need to use them.

How do you get the lawyers to be “interviewed” for free?

Once you have selected one or more attorneys that you would like to retain in the future you need to meet with them and qualify them in person. That in person meeting is extraordinarily valuable in giving you the needed assurance that you have the right person's phone number in your phone.

When calling to ask for the appointment consider this script:

“Yes, my name is [YOUR NAME] and I am looking for an attorney whose information I could store and call on should I be involved in a legal incident as a law abiding gun owner. I was wondering if I could schedule 15 to 30 minutes with [ATTORNEY NAME] to ask some questions about the law firm and its experience with firearm related case law.”

NOTE: If the attorney you have selected requires that you pay for a meeting or a simple get-to-know-you at their office, that doesn't mean you should be put off. It means only that their time is very valuable and they are likely very good at what they do. Ask if you can send them some questions about their law practice over the phone or via email as an alternative to a paid meeting.

It will be time and money well spent if you do decide to pay for 30 minutes of the attorney's time, yet you're likely able to talk to someone about whether or not it makes sense first.

Remember, this is good practice.

What To Ask In The Interview

This is where most gun owners get stuck. You've got the meeting scheduled, you're sitting across the desk, and you have twenty minutes — what do you actually ask?

Knowing that “criminal defense attorney” is a category rather than a qualification is the starting point. A firm can be excellent at DUIs and drug charges and have never once argued a self-defense case. Sorting one from the other takes specific questions, asked in a specific order, with somewhere to write the answers down.

So we built the worksheet for it.

A few things worth knowing before you walk in.

Ask about trial experience, and ask specifically whether the attorney has ever worked as a prosecutor. A lot of attorneys build a career avoiding trial — they become expert negotiators with limited time in front of a jury. Someone who spent years building the state's case knows exactly what is coming at you.

Ask about cost directly, and don't be shy about it. Criminal defense attorneys don't work on contingency, because there is no settlement at the end to take a percentage of. The money comes from you, up front, and it is almost always more than people expect — even in a case where you were unquestionably in the right and never fired a round.

And ask how you reach them. If you have an incident in the middle of the night and can't get hold of your attorney for twelve hours, the district attorney can accomplish a great deal in twelve hours. Top attorneys pay for answering services precisely so they can be reached at any hour. An attorney you cannot reach at 2am is an attorney you do not have.

The checklist covers all of that in detail, along with the questions most people never think to ask.

After You Choose

Picking the attorney is most of the work, but a few minutes afterward is what makes the decision actually useful:

Put the number in your phone under a name you'll find under stress. “Attorney” beats the firm's name at 2am. Add the after-hours line as a second entry.

Tell your spouse or a trusted family member who the attorney is and where the number is. If you are detained you may get one phone call, and it may not be the one you want to make.

Set a reminder twelve months out. Attorneys retire, change firms, and stop taking these cases. Confirm once a year that yours is still there.

Please, above all, take action. If you do nothing but look at 3-5 websites, pick the one who looks like the best lawyer for you, and save his or her phone number, you will be better off than if you need to search in the moment.

That said, not choosing a lawyer and making this an immediate priority is a major risk. You could be risking jail time, your life's savings, and even your rights as an American. We believe in our justice system here at ConcealedCarry.com, yet that means we are full and responsible participants in the system. It also means that we know the system is not perfect, mistakes are often made, and it's our job to protect our personal rights by being prepared and responsible.

And having the right attorney on speed dial is only half of being prepared. The other half is understanding the law well enough to handle the moment correctly in the first place — what justifies deadly force where you live, what to say and what never to say to responding officers, and what actually happens in the hours and months after a defensive incident. That knowledge is what keeps most people from ever needing the phone number at all.

Not ready for the course? Start with the free Gun Attorney Interview Checklist and get your attorney sorted this week.

Editor's Note: This article was originally published in 2016. It has been updated and republished.