FAQ

If you are arrested for your alleged offense, then you will be booked and placed in jail until your arraignment or until bail is posted. Some minor misdemeanors may only result in a fine upon conviction, particularly if you are granted probation. More serious crimes, however, will probably result in a jail or prison sentence upon conviction.

As soon as possible. Without a skilled and experienced criminal defense lawyer on your side, your chances of successfully fighting your charges are very slim. You will have no control over which attorney represents you unless you hire your own. Do not hesitate to retain an experienced criminal defense attorney of your choice if you have been arrested for a crime of any kind.

There are all kinds of alternative programs available to those defendants who are first offenders for non-serious crimes. Your attorney must be aware of these various programs to best protect your rights.

For the most part, if you are a possible target of the police concerning criminal activity, you should generally not talk to the police before you first talk to an attorney. In our office, we usually talk to the police first. Most of the time, we inform the police that our client will not be talking to them. It is very true anything you tell the police can be used to prosecute you. A lawyer may very well be needed before you are ever arrested.

Experience! Look for an attorney who goes to your designated court with some frequency; someone who knows the prosecutors; someone who has worked with judges in the past and knows their temperament, likes and dislikes. You want a law firm that has a solid reputation in the legal community. You want a law firm that will fight for the best result possible.

Exact definitions vary by jurisdiction, but the traditional definition of a felony is a crime that is punishable by a year or more in prison. A misdemeanor is a crime that is generally punishable by imprisonment of less than one year. Felonies are more serious crimes than misdemeanors.

The grand jury decides whether there is sufficient evidence to indict a suspect and continue the criminal proceedings against him or her. The grand jury reviews the evidence and may hear testimony in deciding whether to indict someone, but, unlike a standard jury, the grand jury makes no decision about guilt or innocence. All states use the grand jury system to some extent, though there are differences in terms of when a grand jury indictment is necessary and the numbers of jurors that serves on one.

Probation is a type of criminal sentence that allows a person to stay in the community rather than serve time in prison as long as he or she complies with certain conditions (like regularly reporting to a probation officer, refraining from alcohol and drugs, holding down a job, not associating with certain people and not committing further crimes). Parole is the supervised release of a prisoner from incarceration into the community before the end of his or her sentence or after a period of imprisonment has been completed. Conditions of parole are often similar to those of probation.

White-collar crime, also called “paper crime,” refers generally to non-violent financial crimes involving fraud or other dishonesty committed in business or commercial contexts. Examples include insider trading, embezzlement, securities fraud and tax evasion.

It depends. If a person who is not an American citizen is convicted of certain crimes, he or she can be removed (formerly known as being “deported”). This includes those in the U.S. on work or student visas as well as lawful permanent residents living and working in the United States. Pursuant to U.S. immigration law, if a noncitizen is convicted of an aggravated felony, a crime of moral turpitude or any one of a number of other specifically enumerated crimes (such as violations of laws relating to domestic violence, controlled substances, immigration fraud and firearms), he or she is at risk of removal. In addition to possible removal, a conviction may adversely affect a lawful permanent resident’s ability to one day become a citizen.

In order for a legal DWI arrest to occur, the officer must have had legal grounds to pull you over in the first place and must have gained adequate evidence that you were intoxicated. If you fail even one field sobriety test or blow a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) reading of 0.08% or higher (or less for commercial drivers and underage persons), you can be legally arrested under charges of DWI.

The police officers involved write reports about the crime, obtain witness statements, run a background check of the suspect, and do further investigation as needed before submitting their work to the prosecuting authority. A prosecutor reviews the documents to determine whether criminal charges – a misdemeanor or a felony – are warranted. The prosecutor has the option of rejecting the case for criminal prosecution, filing a misdemeanor, or filing a felony charge. If charges are filed, the next step in the criminal process is in court, at an arraignment.

Many cases are resolved with police just closing their files, because the evidence of a crime is simply insufficient. The court system does not get involved. However, as with many things in life, the world is not perfect and police officers do make mistakes. People have been falsely accused of rape, domestic violence, murder, and even drug possession because officers were either making negligent mistakes in their investigation, intentionally framing suspects, or intentionally lying about probable cause to justify an otherwise unlawful search of a home, car, or even of someone’s person. Innocent people have served years in prison only to be released upon DNA testing.

The U.S. Constitution has been interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court as giving everyone to right to act “pro-se,” or, in other words, to represent him/her self without an attorney. However, our courtroom experience has shown that individuals representing themselves cannot do nearly as good of a job defending themselves as an experienced criminal defense attorney can—even if the litigant is a civil attorney who does not have a criminal defense or prosecution background. As former State’s Attorneys, we’ve dealt with many people representing themselves in court and have seen numerous errors committed by litigants representing themselves. Also, a DUI plea carries a mandatory license suspension. On a first time DUI, a license is suspended for either no less than 90 days or no less than 6 months if there is a refusal to submit to an evidentiary breath test. Many people believe that if they provide a sample of breath and the result is a .08% or greater than they have no opportunity to defend themselves. That is not always the case. An experienced criminal defense attorney can uncover possible constitutional or statutory violations that law enforcement may have committed while interacting with you and can also determine after a thorough review of the evidence whether factual problems exist for the prosecution making their case difficult to prove. A case is never as simple as whether or not an individual’s alcohol concentration was a .08% or greater.

If your constitutional rights were violated, the Attorneys at Jarvis, McArthur & Williams will aggressively seek to exclude evidence obtained as a result of police misconduct. At times, police misconduct occurs in searches that take place during ordinary traffic stops or in a suspect’s home. Additionally, if law enforcement is too aggressive in trying to obtain an incriminating statement from a suspect, it may violate the suspect’s Miranda rights. Litigation in the criminal court allows a defense lawyer to protect his client’s rights by submitting motions to the judge seeking to exclude the recovered evidence or received statements from trial. Often a successful motion to suppress evidence cripples the prosecutor’s case, causing the case to either be dismissed or substantially reduced in plea negotiations.

Criminal convictions may cause direct and grave consequences to someone’s immigration status, often leading to deportation proceedings. The INS guidelines are often very complex and the Attorneys at Jarvis, McArthur & Williams frequently confer with immigration lawyers to properly advise clients. Before going to court, our attorneys discuss with clients their immigration status. Often our attorneys seek charges that are not considered by the INS as moral turpitude offenses (which are subject to deportation); this is done in an effort to protect our client’s immigration consequences.

Clearing up an arrest warrant can be done one way: appearing in front of the court that issued the warrant. As long as the warrant is in the system, the person can be arrested for it in any state, in any contact with the police or government agency, and even coming into the United States at the airport. Immediate action to clear up the warrant is the best way to approach this legal problem. Voluntarily coming into the court may often prevent later jail time if the person is actually arrested on the warrant.

In most criminal courts the arraignment is where you first appear before a judge and enter a plea of guilty or not guilty to the offense charged. Assuming you enter a plea of not guilty, which almost every defendant does at this early stage, the following steps also happen at the arraignment:

the judge sets a date for the next procedural event in your case
the judge considers any bail requests that you or the prosecutor make
the judge appoints a lawyer for you, if appropriate, and
the judge may ask you to “waive time” — that is, give up your right to have the trial or other statutory proceedings occur within specified periods of time.

Most people can, if necessary, handle this proceeding without an attorney. However, it’s almost always better to have a lawyer, whether court-appointed or privately retained.

Judges rarely grant a defendant ’s request for change of a public defender or other court-appointed lawyer. Disagreements between government-paid lawyers and defendants over strategic decisions are common and rarely are cause for a change of counsel. However, if in a serious case a schism between a lawyer and a defendant is so severe that a professional relationship is impossible, a judge may grant a defendant ’s request for new counsel. Incompetence of counsel is another possible basis of a change of counsel, but one that rarely arises.

The U.S. Constitution provides that you are entitled to representation by an attorney if the state is trying to deprive you of your liberty. This means that a court may be required to appoint a lawyer to represent you for free—or for a fee, you can afford—if the crime you are charged with carries a jail sentence.

According to the federal constitution, a defendant has a right to an attorney before being punished by imprisonment. Some courts have held that the right to counsel applies not only wherever imprisonment is imposed, but wherever it may be imposed. States are free to provide a right to counsel in other circumstances, too, as when the defendant could be sentenced to a fine of a certain amount. (Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. 806 (1975).)

Because most criminal defendants are unable to afford their own attorneys, many states have public defender’s offices. Public defenders (PDs) are fully licensed lawyers whose sole job is to represent poor defendants in criminal cases. Because they appear daily in the same courts, PDs gain a lot of experience in a short period of time. And because they work daily with the same cast of characters, they learn the personalities (and prejudices) of the judges, prosecutors, and local law enforcement officers—important information to know when assessing a case and conducting a trial.