My son is serving two 1-5 sentences for second degree sexual abuse. He will have served 1 year in December. We made a motion for Rule 35 Early release in May, but it was turned down. We were not surprised because we knew he had to serve 1 year at lease. We are suppose to appeal the decision by December. We have made several calls to ask questions. He did not return our calls. My son has called 3 times. He would not take the call. He has now written a letter, and as of now has not gotten an answer.

My question is, what do we do to get a response from our lawyer?

Thank you,
faithfulmom

Hello mom:

Some lawyers, even good ones, don't have very good office skills. If that's the case with THIS lawyer, you (or your son - cause the lawyer can't even address YOU) need to establish some ground rules..

Of course, IF the lawyer is handling the case Pro Bono (free), then I wouldn't bug him. But, if he's being paid, if even from the state, he has an obligation toward his client.

Certainly, your son can threaten to FIRE the lawyer if he doesn't respond. That's what I would do, unless he's the greatest appellate attorney since sliced bread. If he's in your town, you could park yourself in his office. The attorney needs to understand that you require open and honest communications, and there's things you (your son) can do about it if it's not forthcoming.

excon

Maybe he doesn't have time to write and tell your son that he has no news about this and will write to him when he does. Attorneys are generally very busy (criminal attorneys especially). Have your son write a letter every week until he does get a response. You sitting in the waiting room isn't going to get you an answer any quicker. Also, phone calls don't work either. Writing letters does. Also he has not completed one year in prison yet. Take that into consideration as well on the Judge's part.

Try e-mailing the attorney. Send an e-mail or letter asking him to step down as the attorney. Your son probably did something much worse than what he was finally allowed to plea down to for a short jail time - so he needs to be in jail thinking about how he ruined someone's life. Even if this wasn't a plea to a lessor charge - sex crimes are serious and seriously injure the victim.

I hope for his sake, your sake and the sake of society he will not repeat these actions.

Good Luck

You said We are suppose to appeal the decision by December

Did you retain the attorney to do the appeal on this? If you did not retain the attorney to do the appeal, then why should he get back to you? The motion was denied. The next step would have been to retain the attorney for an appeal.

Let me add that in many cases this is why attorneys have legal assistants and/or paralegals. These assistants many times can give and receive information in the absence of the attorney.

Have you gone down this avenue yet? If not, I would try to reach the attorney's secretary/assistant/paralegal.