Ed. Note: The following paid content was provided by Wade Skalsky, who is a client of KHTS AM-1220.
Santa Clarita resident Wade Skalsky sat down with KHTS AM-1220’s Kyle Jellings to discuss his work as a defense attorney and his goal of helping average residents who may be in legal trouble.
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“What I enjoy the most is just helping normal people that make a mistake,” Skalsky said. “I don’t believe that their whole life deserves to be upended because of one mistake… It’s very satisfying to be in those types of courtrooms and those types of cases. It feeds me and it really drives me forward.”
After attending law school at George Washington University in Washington D.C., Skalsky worked as a prosecutor in Arizona for about four years before he decided to move to Santa Monica to become a defense attorney.
“A prosecutor works for the government,” Skalsky explained. “If you break the law or are accused of a crime, they’re the person that is in charge of basically representing the government in the case… A defense attorney basically represents an individual– a normal person like you and me.”
While prosecutors typically have extensive resources like investigators and money, a person accused of a crime only has “yourself, whatever money you have and your defense attorney,” according to Skalsky.
“It’s not really a fair fight sometimes, but that’s the difference and that’s the defense attorney’s job: to represent your rights, to protect you from the government and to make sure that your rights are adhered to and to fight for you.”
“It’s an adversarial system, and I’ve been on both sides,” he added.
Residents who choose Skalsky to represent their case can expect him to make every effort to avoid going to trial, which Skalsky deems “expensive” and “risky.”
“My whole goal is to see if we can get the case either dismissed or reduced to something else that is not going to impact them, and if we can accomplish that we avoid trial,” he said. “Really both sides win; the prosecution doesn’t have to spend a bunch of money on a trial and my clients get the benefit of not having a criminal conviction on their record.”
Do you have a news tip? Call us at (661) 298-1220, or drop us a line at community@hometownstation.com.While Skalsky’s offices are currently located in Glendale, he made the decision to move from Santa Monica to the Santa Clarita Valley after meeting his wife, he said.
“When we got married, we were looking for a more family-oriented place. We were looking at Santa Monica, and she was living in Hollywood. Santa Clarita was such a great destination for those values of what we wanted so that’s why we moved out here.”
Santa Clarita Valley residents interested in being represented by Skalsky can start their free consultation online.
Law Offices of Wade J. Skalsky
450 N. Brand Blvd, Suite 600
Glendale, CA 91203
Toll-free: 800-836-1120
Phone: 855-873-9233