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George Lawrence Schraer

4.0
Rating: 9.8

Licensed for 54 years

Appeals Lawyer at San Diego, CA
Practice Areas: Appeals

5173 Waring Rd # 247, San Diego, CA

About George

Practice Areas

1

Practice Area

Appeals 100%

Criminal appeals and writs.

53 years | 600 cases

100%

Fees and Rates

We have not found any cost information for this lawyer


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Licenses

Licensed in California for 54 years

State: California

Acquired: 1972

Active

No misconduct found

Location

Law Offices of George Lawrence Schraer

5173 Waring Rd # 247, San Diego, CA, 92120-2705

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George Lawrence Schraer's Reviews

Avvo Review Score

4.0 /5.0

8 Client Reviews

Filter Avvo Reviews (8) Refine reviews to match your needs. Use the filters to quickly surface reviews that align with your case or priorities.

Showing 1 - 5 of 8 reviews

Posted by MR | September 14, 2022 | Hired Attorney | Appeals

Highly recommend George Schraer! A hugely competent and helpful attorney!

George Schraer is an excellent attorney, with 40+ years of experience in law. I have been a client of George since 2018, and continue to retain George for any legal matters in which we need counsel. Whenever I have queries, George always responds swiftly, in fact within a few minutes, and provides ad...ditional guidance and support. After having experienced ineffective and incompetent attorneys in the past, who had promised the world and delivered nothing, George's counsel was a welcome relief. Rather than taking our money at the first opportunity, George initially declined to represent my husband Dylan on appeal. This was also a huge part of what stood out to us about George. We didn't feel he was striving to sell us his service, but rather, gave us the confidence that we could depend on him to provide a rigorous review of Dylan's case. So we convinced George to draft a commutation application on Dylan's behalf. He did exemplary work in that regard, and took it upon himself to review Dylan's trial transcripts. To our excitement, George pointed out an issue which has become the focus of an appeal and relief in my husband's case. I would highly recommend George to anybody in a similar situation. George is reliable, straightforward, and his work is highly invaluable. The following is a statement from my incarcerated husband, Dylan: "George Schraer helped me put together a great commutation and found a crucial arguable issue for me in my case. I give this guy 5 stars. Awesome work. I have had bad luck with lawyers prior to George. I finally caught a break. George was great and helped me astronomically. Thanks George. If you ever read this, kudos to you. Dylan"

Posted by Paul | June 30, 2022 | Hired Attorney | Criminal Defense

Not recommended

I hired Mr Schraer to help with litigation for a friend of mine with a very serious sentence. Mr. Schraer promise a lot but deliver little. He postponed his work with the case with endless excuses. "I'll start next week, I'm on this in two weeks, I'm a little delayed but hope to get this done next mo...nth and so on". When we are on a critical time limit this is not the way to do it. When he finally reviewed our case 6 months later than promised he found nothing he could use. Very convenient if you ask me, then he didn't have to bother doing any real work or investigation on the case, even if it had obvious issues. Luckily I was able to terminate the contract with Mr Schraer and move on to another lawyer who was interested in helping us.

George Schraer

Replied last July 02, 2022

Client is correct in saying that I was not able to work on the case as soon as I expected. But I was primarily retained to file a federal habeas corpus petition whose due date was in September 2022. I had read the record and was ready to start the petition in May 2022, five months before that deadline. In the preceding six months I had to meet deadlines in other cases that could not be extended. By the way, I was greatly interested in helping the client. She received an extremely long sentence which I felt was unfair. And there is currently a law pending in the California Assembly which, if passed and made retroactive, will help her. But that law is currently stalled, and it appears likely it will not be adopted. And if the law I mention is enacted, I plan to tell the client and her current attorney about it. The federal habeas petition I was prepared to begin was based on federal issues that had been raised on direct appeal by another attorney. The writer wanted me also to investigate whether to file a state habeas corpus petition raising additional issues. All of those issues were based on what any reviewing court would find to be speculation and could not possibly have succeeded. I explained this in detail in a five-page single spaced letter discussing the various issues in detail. It is not correct that I could find nothing I could use. I planned to raise the issues that had been raised on direct appeal. One of them was an interesting Miranda issue which I think the state courts got wrong. Miranda issues can be raised in federal habeas corpus. One of the things I try to do is to make sure the client is fully informed about what might end in a favorable result and what definitely will not. I do not want to have a client spend a lot of money pursuing issues that cannot possibly win. I will not mislead a client simply to rack up billable hours. I hope I am wrong and that the new attorney will find something I missed. But based on prior experience I believe I am right.

Posted by anonymous | March 25, 2022 | Hired Attorney | Appeals

Got the Trial Start Date Wrong

Mr. George Schraer had selected the inncorrect date that Trial had started. He chose a date of the Pre Trial Motions, 402 Hearing as the start of Trial. It was not a mistake because it was pointed out to him and he still did not make the change or correct this critical date. Critical because this ...was an appeal and if corrected to the actual start of Trial Date, it would increase the time to an additional 5 days. However, even when he was told and faced with the facts of when trials actualy start, and would not change the date. The Judge, DA and Defense Attorney all state in the transcripts when trial began but George failed and kept his trial date which was incorrect.

George Schraer

Replied last July 02, 2022

Two points. 1. I correctly stated the day on which trial started. 2. Even if I had been mistaken about that date, it would have made no difference to any issue raised on appeal. The issues included error in denying a motion for self-representation, error in admitting prejudicial evidence, instructional error and sentencing error. None of these issues depended on whether trial started on date X or date Y. They turned on what happened, not when it happened.

Posted by Paula | December 23, 2021 | Criminal Defense

A highly-skilled and effective true believer, recommended without reservation

George Schraer has been representing clients in criminal appeals in California longer, better, and with more heart than almost any other attorney in the state. I know this because I was an Appellate Project Staff Attorney for almost 40 years and have worked with or supervised just about every attorn...ey in the state who does this work. You can't do better than George. If anyone can win your case, he can.

Posted by Jon | December 21, 2021 | Lawsuits & Disputes

George is indeed one of the 5 top appellate lawyers in California

I'm another of George's colleagues and I agree with everything everyone (other than Mr. Abraham) has said. I'd add that between the surname Abraham and the information in the posting, it wasn't too hard to find the online information about the case, and one of the things it tells me is that the case... is still still pending. The oral argument was last Thursday. (So George did do a bit more than just write the two briefs.) It will probably be at least a month or so before the court issues a decision. So it's not entirely clear what Mr. Abraham is complaining about. His son could still win his appeal. Also, inquiring minds want to know: if he didn't let Mr. Abraham see the finished product, how does Mr. Abraham know that there were spelling and grammar errors in the version that was filed?

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Experience

Rating:  9.8 (Superb)

Honors

2011

Appellate Attorney of the Year, Criminal Defense Bar Association of San Diego

2002

Paul Bell Award for Professional Excellence, Defender Programs of San Diego

Work Experience

1986 - Present

Criminal Appellate Attorney, George L. Schraer, Attorney at Law

1981 - 1986

Staff Attorney/Supervising Attorney, State Of California Public Defender

1973 - 1981

Criminal Appellate Attorney, George L. Schraer, Attorney at Law

Associations

2008 - Present

Criminal Defense Lawyers Club

Member

1993 - Present

California Appellate Defense Counsel

Member and former member of the Board of Directors

Sample of Legal Cases

People v. Heinzel

Convictions/judgment reversed

People v. Eid (2010) 187 Cal.App.4th 859

Judgment reversed.

See More Legal Cases

Education

1971

UCLA SOL

law

1968

Univ of California Berkeley

undergraduate

Speaking Engagements

2013

Annual Appellate Seminar

Presenting oral argument

2012

Annual Appellate Seminar

California Law of Homicide

2012

Annual Appellate Seminar

Arguing instructional issues on appeal

2011

Annual Appellate Seminar

Harmless error in criminal appeals

2010

Annual Appellate Seminar

Overcoming forfeiture/waiver of issues on appeal

Publications

2013

California Continuing Education of the Bar (CEB) Criminal Appeals and Writs, co-author

Activity

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