Information About Criminal Matters

Criminal charges, even if you are found not guilty or the charges are dismissed or otherwise disposed of, can have the most profound impact on other matters of an individual's life. The charges can affect your employment prospects, your privilege to carry and possess certain licenses (hunting, police employment, casinos, driver's license, etc). In addition, one can also lose a reputation, friendship's and family relations as well as incur bankruptcy.

Certain common sense suggestions are in order before and after obtaining an attorney to represent your freedom. Among these are the following:

1. Trust, cooperate and inform your attorney. Tell the attorney of your choice all the details regarding the arrest, summons or charges. These facts will not only include the exact details of the actual arrest and charges but also information regarding any prior charges or incidents, names and addresses of character and reputation witnesses, prior employment, education, social security number, legal status, prior medical history, employment history, military service, residences, need for an interpreter, financial ability (bail), the existence of any evidence, etc.

2. Keep your attorney informed as to your address change.

3. Do not discuss the case with anyone.

4. Make a proper appearance. Remember that you are constantly being judged on your appearance, clothing, speech.

5. Have patience. Concluding any criminal matter is a long and drawn out process which may take weeks or months depending on the seriousness of the offense.

6. Arrive on time at any court hearing.

The attorney's fees in criminal matters are paid on a per hourly basis and often involves a deposit. The amount of the deposit depends on the seriousness of the offense, the importance of the offense to the accused as well as how many hours are put into the matter.

Besides the summons or charges, the first document your attorney receives is the police report or "discovery," which details to some extent the investigator or arresting officers version of the occurrences leading to the charges being filed. This report is helpful to the accused in that it must be properly filed, sufficiently detailed and provides the first glimpse as to the nature of the charges against the accused. If the facts leading to these charges are insufficient, the charges themselves can be dismissed by way of a motion to dismiss for insufficiency, or a probable cause motion, or a motion to dismiss the indictment or a host of other motions such as perhaps the charges were brought in an erroneous jurisdiction or venue.

If the matter becomes indictable, i.e., transferred to a higher court, then there will be a waiting period to ascertain the validity of this new status to the charges. If the charges are not worthy of being indictable, then they may be downgraded back to the municipal court as a lesser offense.

There thus are several methods by which erroneous charges may be dismissed or otherwise resolved, depending on the court's discretion:

	a. motions for probable cause, suppression, misidentification, 
	improper grand jury determinations, loss of discovery, etc. 

	b. plea agreements.

	c. Programs such as pre-trial intervention (avoidance of jail 
	through a probationary type of program wherein you agree to 
	maintain employment, undergo urine exams, report any address 
	changes, not become involved in any other criminal activity, 
	etc), community justice, mediation, etc.

	d. Probation

	e. merging the charges

	f. mutual dismissal of the charges by way of a Fifth Amendment 
	(right to remain silent).

	g. voluntary dismissal by the alleged victim. 

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