What To Expect When You Retain A Skillful Criminal Defense Attorney
Posted on: 19 August 2021
When you have been arrested for and charged with a crime, you have a constitutional right to defend yourself in court. However, your limited or nonexistent legal knowledge may not afford you the skills needed to prove your innocence and get the charges against you dropped.
Instead of risking the possibility of jail time and expensive fines, you can retain someone to represent you in your case. You can find this representation when you hire a criminal defense attorney.
Proving Your Innocence
One of the services that you can expect from your criminal defense attorney involves proving your innocence. In fact, you may be entirely innocent of the charges against you. However, you may not have any idea of how to prove this fact to a judge or jury.
When you want to prove your innocence and get your case dismissed, you can hire a criminal defense attorney to help you gather compelling and clear evidence to back up your claim. Your lawyer can subpoena proof, such as testimonies from witnesses, video surveillance footage, and police reports, to show that you did not commit the crime and that you deserve to have the charges against you dropped.
Avoiding Jail Time
When the prosecutors have a solid case, they might want to pursue the harshest penalties. You could face going to prison for years, as well as having to pay an expensive fine that you might not be able to afford.
Rather than simply accept this fate, you can hire a criminal defense attorney to negotiate with the prosecutor and get a lower sentence if you are convicted. Your lawyer may be able to convince the prosecutor to recommend a sentence of time served, probation, or community service, for example. Your attorney may also ask the court to minimize any civil fines that you have to pay.
Finally, your criminal defense attorney may be able to have your record expunged of the conviction after you serve your sentence and pay your fines. A criminal defense attorney knows what paperwork to file for an expungement and can expedite the process if you are eligible for it.
Criminal defense attorneys can provide many important services to a defendant facing a serious criminal charge. They can also prove the innocence of their clients in court. Your lawyer can also negotiate a lower charge and sentence and request to have your record expunged if possible.
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