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Adam M Smith on What a Criminal Defense Attorney Can Do

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Criminal defense attorneys, explains Adam M Smith, are very special types of lawyers. Their main role is to make sure that men and women who they represent are protected as much as possible under the law after they face criminal charges. Their role, as such, is to keep people out of prison if at all possible.

Adam M Smith on Different Criminal Violations

There are tens of thousands of criminal violations that someone can face. A snapshot of an average town in this country in June alone would reveal charges for:

  • Hit and runs
  • Drunk driving
  • Shoplifting
  • Reckless driving
  • Burglary
  • Larceny
  • Battery
  • Assault
  • Manslaughter
  • Murder
  • Drug possession
  • Record expungement
  • Drug trafficking
  • Selling a controlled substance
  • Rape

Adam M Smith on What a Layer Can Do

Criminal lawyers do a great deal of things, including:

  1. Lowering charges. They will do this by investigating all the available evidence, challenging each element on the tiniest details.
  2. Criminal lawyers are often court appointed because the defendant cannot afford their own lawyer. Unfortunately, court appointed lawyers are often inexperienced and young and they struggle to stand up against the arguments of the District Attorney. However, they will try, but it is best to hire a professional attorney if at all possible.
  3. Motions to dismiss. This is where the attorney will try to convince the members of the grand jury to simply dismiss the case altogether. If they are successful, the process ends here and the defendant will not have a criminal record either.
  4. Pre trial conferences. This is where the attorney and the district attorney are brought before the judge to indicate whether they are ready to go to trial and a date will be set.
  5. The trial. This is where plea bargaining negotiations and discussions will start as well, usually outside of the court. Often, they will reach an agreement and the judge will simply accept the settlement that the two parties have reached. However, a trial will start if no agreement is reached.
  6. A good defense attorney will always fight for the minimum sentence. For instance, they will try to have someone acquitted in full and, if that doesn’t work, to offer a suspended sentence. If the crime is too serious for this, they will argue for county jail instead of state prison. If the crime is even more serious, they will argue for a sentence with parole instead of without. And, if necessary, they will argue for life imprisonment instead of the death penalty.

Criminal defense attorneys are always busy. Criminals do not wait until June, when the weather is nice, to commit their crimes. And attorneys don’t have the luxury of waiting until something is convenient for them either. After all, it is everybody’s constitutional right to have a speedy and fair trial and to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. Working in this field is incredibly rewarding but also incredibly challenging and it takes a very special person to be able to take on the job.

Settling vs. Going to Trial: The Pros and Cons of Each Outcome

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Legal matters should be approached with all the thought and consideration in order for you to maximize the chances of reaching the desired outcome. No matter which path you take, a lawyer will surely be of assistance to you. For educational purposes only, we’re going to go through the pros and cons of each, so you’ll be equipped with the knowledge of what you can expect.

The pros of settling

If you decide to settle out of court, there’s probably going to be much less stress involved. The amount agreed on will be clearly and transparently laid out for everyone to see, and you’ll also be able to get your hands on it much faster then letting the case escalate to court. Typically, this shouldn’t be more than a month or so. The legal fees won’t be as high; for example, if you’ve been injured in a car accident, you won’t need to hire an automobile accident lawyer to represent you in court.

The cons of settling

Unfortunately, the negative side of settling outside of court is that you potentially won’t get compensated as much. Furthermore, the defendant is under much less pressure to admit to any wrongdoing on their part. Also, settling out of court tends to be much more private than letting things escalate, which might be a bad thing if your aim is to expose those who have wronged you.

The pros of going to trial

Going to trial means that you’re going to get multiple people involved; the judge, the jury, the attorneys, the witnesses… and the list goes on. If you believe you stand a good chance of winning, this may be worthy of pursuing, since the monetary compensation you can expect tends to be much greater than what you could ever hope to get by settling outside of court. If the jury decides in your favor, the defendant will get some bad publicity, which could yield plenty of personal satisfaction if this is what you’re aiming to achieve.

The cons of going to trial

The obvious con of going to trial is that the end result is uncertain and that nothing is guaranteed. Even if things look good for you on paper, you may still end up losing the legal battle. Furthermore, a lot of time can pass before reaching the resolution, which – apart from being a psychological burden – also means a hefty amount of legal fees. The longer the trial, the more expensive it can get. Finally, the inherent public nature of trials could be also viewed as a con if you’d rather see your legal battles stay private.

Conclusion

As you can see, you simply cannot interpret the world in terms of black and white, since everything has its positive and negative sides. This is especially true for legal matters. However, by understanding the pros and cons of settling versus going to trial, you’ll be in a much better position to take the best possible route in a given situation. No matter what you choose, however, you should always consult an attorney before proceeding.

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We left our home in Sydney, Australia many moons ago in May 2012 and, other than a brief stint back in Perth for Christmas and a wedding in early 2014, we have been travelling the world nomadically ever since, running a business from our laptops and we’re here to show you how to do it!