The Dos and Don’ts of Character Letters

Hey, I'm Ally Keegan. And I'm a criminal defense attorney at the Law Office of David Shapiro in San Diego, where we help good people regain control of their future when charged with a crime. Let's talk about character letters. This is something that kind of across the board, no matter what sort of case it is, it's a really common question we get from clients about whether character letters can help in their case. And the answer is yes, they certainly can, but you want to make sure you do it the right way because weaving character letters into your defense is kind of an art and a science.

Now, when we talk about character letters, what are we actually referring to? Basically, it is a letter intended to explain who you are as a person beyond this one decision you might've made or this one offense you might've committed, if you even did anything wrong to begin with, and explain that you're so much more than this one decision. And that every other step of the way in your life, you've been a person of integrity and you've been honest and upstanding and that you're overall a productive citizen in society.

And who do we want these letters from? They can come from a bunch of different places. A lot of times they'll come from friends or family or colleagues. But ideally, it's going to be someone that has known you for a while, so they really do understand what you're like as a person and that this behavior was out of character for you. That's why, if possible, it is good for them to have at least some vague idea of what you're accused of. It's not required, they don't have to, but if you do have someone that is aware of the criminal case itself and can vouch for you and say that it has no bearing on who you actually are as a person, that could go a long way.

It's also helpful to have some variety in how these people know you. You might be one way at home and another way at work. So if we're able to find a couple of different people from every aspect of your life that can really vouch for you and attest for who you are on a day-to-day basis, that can go a long way as well. And while there are things we want to see in character letters, there are also plenty of don'ts associated with it as well.

The first is that you don't want the people that are writing these letters on your behalf to try to deny any wrongdoing for you or excuse your conduct. There is a way to go about that, and the short answer is that the best way to do it is through your lawyer and no one else. But if you're doing it in a character letter, it could really rub the judge, the prosecution, whoever we're sending it to to read, it can rub them the wrong way. And that's the last thing you want to do when you're trying to negotiate. Be it a better deal or sentencing or even an outright dismissal, it's just, that is not the time or the place for that. And any time you want to explain the conduct, the best way is usually to do it with your attorney's help.

So no denials, no excuses in the character letters. And generally, you just want to avoid being combative altogether. It's easier said than done, but the best way to think of it is as though Thanksgiving dinner rules apply with your family, where you want to leave politics out of it. You want to probably leave religion out of it, unless it's positive or beneficial to you to show your community involvement. But at the end of the day, you're just there to give context for your loved one or whoever's accused of a crime to show that I really do know this person, I understand what they're accused of, and I know that this is not at all indicative of their character, and they're much more than this one decision they might've made that one time.

Then the last thing you really need to do is really strategize how many of those character letters you're going to use because while a hundred character letters is great and might show that you have a lot of people in your corner, judges and prosecutors and defense attorneys and everyone else in the system, we're all still humans. And you want to make sure however many you submit is actually going to keep their attention. If it's too short, they might be wanting more and you might want to include more information. If they're too long, the judge's eyes might glaze over and they might stop paying attention. So you really want to be tactful about how many of these character letters you use as well.

So if you are facing a criminal case in San Diego, and you want to talk about different strategies to come up with your defense and really tailor it to your case and to you, and you want to give us a call to set up an evaluation, go ahead. Our phone number is 619-295-3555.