Tipping the Scales in Your Favor in a Criminal Case

Assuming you have been arrested for either a felony or a misdemeanor that is higher than a minor misdemeanor and face possible jail time, you probably decided you needed an attorney. Furthermore, because of the complexity of the legal system and the rules of criminal procedure and rules of evidence in your state, you most likely do not understand how your court case works. To make things even worse, you are likely under a lot of stress trying to figure out what to do.

More than likely you are going to hire a criminal defense attorney or be appointed a public defender for your case. This is where the beginning of your case begins. Your attorney will ask you some basic questions and look at the charges and go over them with you. He or she will explain what the charges mean and what the possible jail sentence will be if you lose in a trial. Most attorneys go over what they think would be possible deals the prosecutor will offer with your given criminal past and the seriousness of the charges.

It is important to tell your attorney everything they ask for since it will be kept confidential and they are not there to judge. Your attorney will guide the case through what is known as the rules of criminal procedure and be following the rules of the local municipal or circuit court as well. Aside from gathering up the evidence from the prosecutor that the district attorney will be using in court, make sure your attorney knows your full side of the story, including anything he has not asked. It is also helpful at this time to go to a law library in your area and look at your state’s rules of criminal procedure and read each one. It will take several hours and you should read several citations for each rule but by the end of doing this for a week or two, you may know as much about your state’s rules of criminal procedure as most prosecutors and attorneys.

You can also do the same thing with your state’s rules of evidence. Having a full grasp of the rules of evidence and procedure will allow you to check your attorney and make sure he really is doing what he is supposed to be doing. Many attorneys, especially public defenders, are so busy and overloaded with too many cases that they simply just work deals out for every case with the county prosecutor instead of digging into cases and doing investigative work. If you know the rules of the court well by studying them hard for 2 weeks, you can start to see things that might make your case more successful that you could go over with your attorney.

Most importantly communicate with your attorney about all issues including anything you think might help put him or her in a better bargaining position with the county prosecutor when striking a deal for you to avoid jail time. The good news in these economic times are the jails are out of space and unless you are a violent convicted felon you are not as likely today to be sent to jail than in years past. For this reason if you get to know your case and the court’s rules you can be in a better bargaining position to plead down to something as small as a petty fine. Always discuss things with your attorney before doing anything else though.