Can a Wife Pay for Her Husband’s Criminal Defense Lawyer in State College, PA?

If your husband got arrested for a crime in State College, you might need to hire a lawyer for him.  No matter your financial situation and who holds the purse strings in your marriage, you might have to be the one to pay the criminal defense lawyer – especially if your husband is in jail right now.  This might seem questionable, and you may have questions about whether you can legally pay for your husband’s lawyer.  State College criminal defense lawyer Andrew Shubin explains how you usually can pay for your husband’s lawyer and how that might work in your husband’s case.

Can You Pay for Your Husband’s Criminal Attorney in State College?

The law usually does allow one person to pay for another person’s lawyer.  Especially when it comes to husbands and wives – who usually share finances – there is a negligible difference between you paying for your husband’s lawyer and him paying for the lawyer himself.  In most cases, the ethical questions and issues that might come up arise because the wife is the one to initially call the lawyer and set up their services.

If I Hire a Lawyer for My Husband’s State College Criminal Charges, Can They Tell Me About the Case?

If you hire and pay for a lawyer for someone else – even your husband – the lawyer will need to get permission from the defendant to represent them.  That means that even if you call and schedule a free case consultation, hire our services, and send us to represent your husband in his case, we will still need to get his permission to represent him.

When a criminal defense lawyer represents someone, that defendant is their “client” for purposes of ethical obligations.  This means that even if you are the one paying the lawyer’s fees, the attorney-client privilege belongs to your husband.  Because of this, we can’t actually tell you anything about the case or how it’s going unless your husband gives us permission to do so.  This helps protect his attorney-client privilege and isn’t done as a way of keeping secrets from you.

How Can I Help My Husband with Criminal Charges in State College?

If your husband is facing charges, you likely want to help in any way you can.  While paying for the lawyer might not seem like much, it can make a world of difference in a criminal case.  While in jail, it might be difficult or impossible for your husband to research lawyers and find one willing to schedule a free consultation and take the case.  You can arrange all of those details for him, which puts him on the best path to fighting the charges.  Once your husband has a lawyer, the attorney can stand between him and the prosecution to challenge the evidence, fight civil rights violations, get charges dropped and dismissed, and negotiate reduced sentences for the case.

If you are not a lawyer, you cannot legally represent your husband.  Instead, paying for an attorney is one of the best ways to help.  However, there are other tasks and issues that the lawyer might need your help with.  If your husband’s attorney needs evidence or items in your possession to help prove your husband’s innocence or fight the case against them, you might be the best person to organize and deliver the evidence.  You might also be excellent help in your husband’s trial as a character witness or a witness to the alleged events if you saw what happened.

In many cases, you have your own form of privilege and immunity with your spouse that prevents you from having to testify against him or from divulging communications made between married spouses.  This is similar to attorney-client privilege, but because these are two separate privileges, the lawyer might want to avoid interfering with your privilege and might not discuss certain topics with you.  However, other evidence you can supply about what happened or what you saw might be excellent evidence in fighting your husband’s case.

State College Lawyer for Husbands Charged with Crimes

Our lawyers represent defendants in all sorts of criminal cases in State College and the surrounding areas.  Many of the charges we deal with are nonviolent offenses where someone is accused of theft, DUI, or drug possession.  We also handle charges for violent crimes such as assault, sex crimes such as sexual assault in Happy Valley, and very serious crimes like murder.

When a wife hires us for her husband’s case, we will start with a few priorities.  First, we want to make sure your husband can get out on bail.  If bail has not been set, we will file petitions with the court to set bail or reduce bail so your husband can afford to get out of jail while awaiting trial.  From there, we will work on case strategy with your husband, discussing what evidence the government might have, what we can do to challenge the charges, and what penalties we might be able to avoid through plea negotiations, with agreements to perform community service, or by fighting for an acquittal.

From there, the case might progress to trial, which our attorneys will prepare your husband for.

Call Our State College Criminal Lawyer for a Free Consultation on Your Husband’s Case

If your husband is facing criminal charges and you need to pay for his lawyer, our State College criminal defense lawyer is prepared to work with both of you to help you understand how these kinds of cases go and what you can do to help your husband by paying for his legal services.  Call our law offices today to set up a free legal consultation for your husband’s case and get his defense moving.  Call The Law Office of Andrew Shubin today at (814) 826-3586.