Is it unusual for an attorney, other than the one I retained, to handle my case?
Question Details:
I recently retained an attorney to defend me in a DUI case but another attorney in the practice is going to court and meeting with me. Is this standard practice or has the attorney I originally retained passed the "buck"? If the latter is the case is there anything I can do about it?
It is very standard for another attorney in the same practice to attend court sessions, meetings, depositions, conferences, etc. in place of the one you retained. When you retain an attorney in a practice, while you are working primarily with that lawyer, you are in many ways retaining the practice. This is a good thing, by the way: it gives you access to more resources, more experience, and when necessary, more warm bodies (i.e. if a lawyer is sick or unavaidably unavailable, it means that the court date, etc. does not need to be rescheduled).
As long as the representation is good, including the lawyer being familiar with the case, its status, and its issues, this is a nonissue. If there is a problem with the representation, such as the lawyer did not prepare or is not capable of handling the appearance passed to him or her, that would be a problem and could represent malpractice, as any bad practice could.
