I've been reading recent posts and feel like I need to have a plan in place for lawyer(s) to call if the police take my possessions at home or at a traffic stop or if I'm forced by a criminal to defend my home.

I'm pretty ignorant about lawyers as I've never needed one to date. I have two questions:

1) Can you recommend pro 2A lawyers that would handle the situations above. I don't even know if they are require radically different types of lawyer.

2) Is there an advantage to setting up a relationship with the lawyer before you need them or do you just call them after something has happened?

I'm basically asking what a sensible legal defense plan should look like

[Can'thavenuthingood]

Might try over at Second Amendment Foundation http://saf.org/ and go to the FAQ's for starters as far as learning legal stuff.

http://www.geocities.com/admiralty_lawyer/dfenders.htm Has a list of 2nd Amendment type attorneys. No recommendations, just roll the dice. Interview several.

Vick

Late post: Up in the bay area, you might checkout http://www.ggnra.org/ There is a NRA Members Council meeting here For September 19th, 2006: meeting location:

Tennessee Grill
1128 Taraval Street (Between 21st & 22nd Avenue)
San Francisco, CA 94116
(415) 664-7834

[artherd]

Trtuanich-Michel, LLP in LA. (This is a firm of many lawyers, all pro 2a, and very good. NRA's attorney...)
Law offices of Donald Kilmer, San Jose. Also very good.

Both are worth their weight in gold-dots

[hoffmang]

I want to second Ben's recommendations. I'd pick between the two based on a conversation (who do you get along with better) balanced/mixed with proximity.

-Gene

[bwiese]

Many gun cases are not technical gun cases.
You either shot the intruder, or didn't.

Any good criminal lawyer can handle these. Many times cases hinge on things like rules of evidence - in fact, SJ Mercury News article a few months ago about Santa Clara County DA office matters (scandals, behavior, practices, policies) revealed that DAs internally bragged to each other they knew rules of evidence better than most criminal defense attorneys. Whether that's true or not, I dunno - but that's the kind of game played. You don't have evidence against you if it doesn't make it into court

[artherd]

motion to suppress!

[faterikcartman]

I am a Cali lawyer and passed the bar in '97. No I don't think any old lawyer would do and yes, I would call someone who specializes in your particular problem. The law seems, to me anyway, very specialized these days. I would have few expert ideas what to do in a Terry Stop, or even a personal injury case.