The 9-Step Strategy — how we handle a case.
Every case we take moves through nine steps across three phases: the work you do, the work we do together, and the work we do in court. Here’s what each step means — and why each one matters.
Explore the StrategyThree Phases · Nine Steps · One Strategy
The framework at a glance.
Three phases. Nine steps. One case, start to finish. Select any step to see how it fits into the strategy.
Home Work
The work you do.
Attorney
Choosing your counselGoals
Defining the outcomeMitigation
Strengthening your positionCase Work
The work we do together.
Discovery
Building the recordInterviews
Testing the storyNegotiations
Finding the leverageCourt Work
The work we do in court.
Pleadings
Strategy in writingCourt Process
Navigating each stageResults
Protecting the outcomeSelect a step to jump to the full explanation
Download the Printable VersionHome Work — the work you do.
Before your case begins in earnest, there is work only you can do. Choosing the right attorney, understanding what outcomes matter most, and taking steps now that strengthen your position later — this is the foundation for everything that follows.
Attorney
Do you have the right lawyer for your case?
Not every attorney is right for every case. General-practice attorneys may handle many different kinds of matters; some cases need someone who does that specific type of work regularly. Trial-experienced attorneys often evaluate and negotiate cases differently than attorneys who rarely see a courtroom. Communication style matters more than most clients realize, too — you may spend months working with this person during one of the hardest periods of your life.
- Do you need an attorney, or can you resolve this without one?
- Private counsel or public defender — and what are the real tradeoffs?
- General practice or focused experience in this type of case?
- Can you review their case results and client reviews?
- Do they have trial experience if the case demands it?
- Do they communicate clearly, consistently, and directly?
Goals
What are you actually trying to accomplish?
Every case has multiple possible outcomes. Some clients care most about avoiding jail. Others need to protect a professional license, preserve a particular custody arrangement, keep a driver’s license, or limit financial consequences. Naming what matters most — and what you are willing to trade to protect it — is one of the most important conversations you will have with your attorney.
- What outcome matters most — and what must be avoided?
- Are there license, immigration, or employment consequences that need to be protected against?
- Are there financial, custody, or property issues in play?
- Are there health, substance, or family issues the case will interact with?
- What tradeoffs are you willing to make?
- Which outcomes are non-negotiable?
Mitigation
What can you do right now to strengthen your position?
Cases are not decided only by what happened before a charge, petition, or dispute began. What you do after the case starts can matter, too. Treatment, employment stability, family support, counseling, education, and other meaningful steps can help show the court or opposing side what your circumstances look like today — and give us more to work with when building the case.
- Are you enrolled in relevant treatment, counseling, or classes?
- Is your employment situation stable?
- Is there family or community support we should document?
- Are you pursuing schooling, volunteering, or otherwise investing in your future?
- What records or documentation of your current circumstances should we have available?
The first three steps happen before most of the visible legal work. That does not make them preliminary. They determine what the rest of the strategy is built around.
Case Work — what we do together.
This is where your work and our work overlap. Building the factual record, understanding the other side, and identifying where the leverage actually is — none of it happens in a vacuum. You know your case. We know the process. The strongest strategy comes from combining both.
Discovery
What does the record actually say?
Discovery is where we begin testing the case against the evidence that actually exists. Getting the initial packet is only the beginning. The records that are missing, the video nobody requested, the communications behind an allegation, or the third-party documents that put an event in context can matter just as much as what was produced first. We treat discovery as an investigation, not a checklist.
- Police reports, officer notes, dispatch logs, and 911 records
- Dash cam, body cam, security footage, photographs, and audio
- Laboratory, blood, urine, breath, or other testing records
- Training, discipline, procedure, and equipment records
- Financial, medical, school, DCS, and communication records
- Witness statements and other third-party evidence
Interviews
Who said what — and does it hold up?
A written statement is not the same thing as a reliable account. Witnesses can misunderstand events, remember them differently, contradict earlier statements, or claim certainty the underlying record does not support. Interviews help us understand what each person actually knows, what they do not know, and where their account fits — or does not fit — with the evidence.
- Do witness statements actually match the documentary record?
- What could the witness realistically see, hear, or know?
- Are there prior inconsistent statements?
- Are bias, motive, distraction, or assumptions affecting the account?
- Did the witness follow required training or procedures?
- Are there credibility, discipline, or impeachment issues?
Negotiations
Where is the leverage — and how do we use it?
By the time meaningful negotiations begin, we should understand what the other side has, what it does not have, and where the case is strongest or weakest. That is what leverage actually is. It is not aggressive posturing. It is knowing what the evidence will support, what problems the other side must confront, and which resolution advances the goals we identified at the start.
- Factual disputes supported by documents, testimony, or other evidence
- Missing, contradictory, or improperly disclosed evidence
- Constitutional, procedural, or evidentiary problems
- Legal defenses or weaknesses in the other side's theory
- Mitigation developed during Step Three
- Current treatment, stability, counseling, or changed circumstances
By the end of Case Work, we should know what the evidence says, where the case is vulnerable, and what a good resolution looks like. That is when strategy becomes leverage.
Court Work — what we do in court.
The final three steps are where preparation becomes execution. Pleadings, hearings, trial, and resolution all happen inside the formal legal process. Your job here is to understand the plan, show up when needed, and let us carry the legal work forward.
Pleadings
The formal record that shapes everything.
Strategy eventually has to become action. Motions, petitions, objections, responses, and other filings are how we ask the court to do something — or stop something from happening.
In a criminal case, that may mean suppressing evidence, reducing bond, or seeking dismissal. In family court, it may mean emergency custody, modification, contempt, enforcement, or protecting parenting time. In a CHINS case, it may mean challenging evidence, services, placement, visitation, or the legal basis for continued intervention.
The filing itself matters, but so does the timing. A motion filed early, supported by the right evidence, and tied to the larger strategy can change the direction of the case before the final hearing ever begins.
- Emergency custody, parenting-time, or other temporary-relief motions
- Motions to modify custody, parenting time, support, or existing orders
- Contempt and enforcement motions when an order is not being followed
- Discovery motions, subpoenas, and requests for records or evidence
- Constitutional, suppression, evidentiary, and motions in limine
- Motions to dismiss, strike, or exclude evidence
- Requests involving placement, services, visitation, or other CHINS issues
- Objections and filings necessary to preserve issues for appeal
Court Process
Every hearing has a purpose.
A case is rarely one hearing. It is usually a sequence of decisions, deadlines, conferences, evidentiary hearings, and sometimes trial. Each stage presents a different question and requires a different level of preparation.
An emergency custody hearing is not prepared the same way as a final custody modification. A CHINS fact-finding hearing is different from disposition. A criminal suppression hearing presents different issues than a jury trial.
Knowing what the court is actually deciding at each stage — and what needs to be proved, challenged, or preserved — is part of the strategy.
- Emergency custody and temporary-relief hearings
- Custody modification, parenting-time, support, and contempt hearings
- Status conferences, pretrial conferences, and case-management hearings
- Guardian ad Litem, custody evaluation, and evidentiary issues
- CHINS detention, fact-finding, disposition, review, and permanency hearings
- Suppression hearings and hearings on contested motions
- Final custody, divorce, and other family-law evidentiary hearings
- Bench trial, jury trial, sentencing, or final disposition
Results
The outcome — and what comes after it.
Every case ends somewhere. What matters is whether the result addresses the goals we identified back in Step Two.
In one case, success may mean dismissal of a criminal charge. In another, it may mean primary custody, restored parenting time, enforcement of an existing order, dismissal of a CHINS petition, reversal on appeal, or simply a workable resolution that gives the client stability again.
We also look beyond the immediate order. A good result should account for what happens next — including modification, enforcement, appeal, expungement, or other future relief when the law allows it.
- Primary physical custody or a change in legal custody
- Expanded, restored, or better-defined parenting time
- Enforcement of an existing family-court order
- Dismissal or favorable resolution of a CHINS or DCS matter
- Dismissal, diversion, reduction, or favorable criminal resolution
- A favorable ruling after hearing or trial
- Reversal, remand, or other relief on appeal
- A foundation for later modification, expungement, or further relief
Different cases end differently. The strategy stays focused on the same question: does the result solve the problem we set out to solve?
The framework stays the same. The work changes with the case.
The nine steps give each case structure, but what we are looking for inside those steps depends on the problem in front of us. The framework gives us the sequence. The facts, law, and goals determine the strategy.
Criminal Defense
From the first investigation through discovery, negotiations, suppression issues, trial, and resolution, the nine steps help identify what the evidence actually proves — and where leverage can be created.
Family Law
Custody, modification, contempt, divorce, and emergency matters require clear goals, a documented factual record, and deliberate decisions about when to negotiate, when to seek court intervention, and when a case needs to be tried.
CHINS & DCS Defense
DCS cases can move quickly, and decisions made early can affect placement, services, parenting time, evidence, and the entire direction of the case. The framework helps keep each stage connected to the larger goal.
Expungement
Expungement is more procedural, but the same discipline applies: understand eligibility, define the goal, assemble the right record, file correctly, address objections, and carry the matter through the final order.
The legal issues change from case to case. The discipline of building the case does not.
Take the strategy with you.
We built the 9-Step Strategy to be useful beyond this page. Use it to prepare for a consultation, organize questions about your case, or simply understand what thoughtful case preparation should look like from beginning to end.
The 9-Step Case Strategy
A one-page version of the framework you can save, print, and use when thinking through your case.
Download the StrategyVining Legal · The 9-Step Strategy
Keep It · Print It · Bring It to a Case-Planning Conversation
Every case starts with a conversation about the plan.
Tell us what is happening, what matters most, and where things stand now. We can start with the first steps: understanding the problem, identifying your goals, and deciding what needs to happen next.