Why You Should Never Ask a UCMJ Lawyer for a “Success Rate”
Any attorney who boasts a “95% success rate” is selling 95% bullshit.
Defense lawyers don’t get 95% of the product out of their hair when they shampoo; they certainly don’t win 95% of their trials.
This page breaks down the two myths that cause the most damage when clients choose an attorney for a military case: the lie of the statistic and the outdated fable of the local handshake.
<h3>How the “Success Rate” lie Works
They call every outcome short of disaster a “win.” When they lose the charges that matter most, like the ones requiring Sex Offender Registration, but win less serious charges, they still call it success. When their client goes to jail for less time than the prosecutor asked for, the lawyer calls it a success, even if the client shouldn’t have gone to jail at all. If the case gets dropped solely because the victim gets hit by an asteroid before trial, the lawyer calls it a success. Also, whatever percentage they claim is not going to be based on real, measurable data.
<h3>The Trial-Count Lie
Don’t ask, “How many trials have you done?”
If a lawyer knows the exact number, they’re either new or more focused on their LinkedIn page than results.
- Motions hearings can be tougher and more important than the trial itself.
- Administrative boards can be harder fought than courts-martial.
- Counting every guilty plea as a “trial” is technically ethical but misleading.
- Some lawyers drag cases to trial just to inflate the count and justify a higher fee.
- In an OSTC-driven system that now cherry-picks winnable cases, a high trial count can signal failure, not skill.
When a “Loss” is a Huge Win
The true test isn’t a percentage; it’s whether the lawyer can salvage your future.
Q: Can a conviction still count as a win?
Yes. If your lawyer keeps you off the sex offender registry when you were facing twenty years and life-long SOR, that’s elite work. That kind of “loss” preserves your post-service life and gets you home to your family quickly. Transforming an SOR-level charge into a lesser, non-registerable offense (say three years confinement and a BCD instead of twenty years and a lifetime of stigma and unemployment) takes mastery of the law, persuasion, and collaboration.
Why You Shouldn’t Shop Locally
Q: Why is hiring a local lawyer a bad idea?
It’s a bad idea if that’s the main reason you chose that lawyer, because proximity has nothing to do with performance.
- Most UCMJ work happens over phone, text, and email. This is true even when all the lawyers work on the same base.
- What matters is the lawyer’s national reputation and experience in military courts, not the length of their commute to base.
- Many local lawyers run general practices and dabble in UCMJ work between DUIs and divorces. Some of the attorneys who advertise as “former JAGs” spent their final years in uniform pushing paperwork or helping command put service members in jail. Experience in prosecution or administration is not in the same universe as defending cases at the highest level for as long as we have.
- We’ve defended courts-martial across the country and overseas for more than twenty years. From Alaska to Okinawa, from Pendleton to Ramstein, we’ve traveled wherever the cases demanded it, often on short notice. That level of reach and repetition builds judgment you can’t fake and a reputation that follows us into every courtroom. We have never had trouble trying cases anywhere, and we don’t limit our defense to one region or one branch.
How to Ask Questions That Matter
Rather than asking about numbers that can be made to lie and tell you nothing, ask about substance. Have a conversation. See how the attorney’s experience and insights fit your case, or don’t.
- Experience: How often have you defended cases with child victims or overlapping civilian and military jurisdictions?
- Strategy: How do you approach an Article 120 case involving memory, alcohol, and brain function?
- Public Scrutiny: How do you manage cases that attract media attention?
- System Knowledge: How do you handle the new OSTC structure and its focus on high-probability prosecutions?
- Reach: How familiar are you with cases at my base or in my state?
- Pricing: Do you use flat fees or hourly billing, and what’s included?
These answers tell you everything a fake statistic never will. We offer direct answers instead of inflated numbers. We’ll tell you what evidence hurts, what helps, and what a promising path forward looks like.
You don’t need an in-person handshake, you need a defense.
Call 800-319-3134 to speak directly with attorneys who try these cases for a living, not for marketing.