What To Do If You Are Arrested In California
The minutes and hours after an arrest are often when people do the most damage to their own cases, and they do it while trying to help themselves. They explain, they correct the record, they tell the officer what “really happened”. They consent to a search to look…
Serious And Violent Crimes In California
Some cases are about a fine, a license, or a difficult year. Others are about whether a person spends the rest of their life in prison. The most serious criminal charges – homicide, attempted murder, gang crimes, sex offenses, three-strikes cases, armed robbery,…
How Criminal Cases Are Won At Trial In California
When a criminal case cannot be resolved another way, it is decided in a courtroom, in front of a jury, and everything the defense did or failed to do in the months before arrives there with it. This article is about how criminal cases are actually won at trial. It…
How To Clean Your Criminal Record In California
A criminal record in California does not usually fade with time. An arrest from twenty years ago often sits in the same databases as an arrest from last week, and it surfaces at the worst moments: a job application, a professional license, an immigration…
Hit & Run In California
. Most people think of a hit and run as a crime about a car accident. It is not, exactly. It is a crime about what you do after the accident. You can be completely free of fault for the collision itself, the other driver ran the light, the pedestrian stepped out,…
Diversion In California: Judicial, Mental Health, Military & Informal
Diversion is often one of the best outcomes in criminal law. It means no conviction, no probation, and eventually the case is dismissed. However, what many people refer to as “diversion” is not one thing. It is a family of very different programs, with one…
How To Prevent Criminal Charges From Being Filed
Learn what happens before prosecutors file charges and how a focused pre-filing defense can sometimes prevent a criminal case from being filed.