subject: Criminal Defense In Los Angeles Helps The Silent [print this page] Criminal charges are hard when someone might be innocent or they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. A criminal defense in Los Angeles attorney would be of great help when things are not going right and an individual needs good representation. An experienced criminal attorney could mean the difference in a reduced sentence and a longer jail sentence. Criminal lawyers will specialize in various laws such as murder and all there sub-sets, robberies, aggravated assaults, rapes and the countless other charges that could be added to a person's case.
Los Angeles is a rough town and to those charged with a crime, innocent or guilty, will need a lawyer that is rougher and tougher than the streets. If an individual is simply opening up the phone book or looking on the Internet for a good attorney, they need to be sure that they are getting one that has experience with the crime they are being jailed for. A good individual does not want their record to be flawed for life if they did nothing wrong. And good people go to prison all the time for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. As an honest person, the good person will help their attorney set their record straight and go free, but being dishonest will not help anyone.
A larger law firm will have specialty attorneys for different kinds of law. For instance one group of lawyers might only work on murders while another group might only work on aggravated assaults. The individual being charged with the crime needs to know who is representing them and tell that person or persons everything they know about what happened, even if it means telling the attorney that their friend or acquaintance did something bad and they were simply standing there. The truth will come out, so why not tell it in the beginning and save everyone the trouble.
There are laws, in some states, that allow a person who has been arrested to not give a statement to the arresting officers unless they have their attorney present. A lawyer will want to know if this was the case. Sometimes, a person suspected of a crime could be arrested without even stating their name; however this does anger and annoy the police. Giving a name and that is all would be acceptable but then stating one would like to wait for further questioning until their lawyer is present is perfectly acceptable. An answer of 'yes' would also be needed after their rights were read to them.
No matter why an individual was arrested, the first, and sometimes the only, phone call should be to the individual's lawyer. Picking out an attorney ahead of time will save a person time and aggregation. This is not to say an individual who goes 'shopping' for an attorney is also going out looking to do something bad; however being prepared if they end up in the wrong place at the wrong time is always a good idea. People are gathered up who are innocent bystanders all the time and this would be a good time to call an attorney that the innocent person already knows.
Even though in a criminal type procedure, money is not the object, many of the lawyers will take a case on a contingency bases. This means that if they don't win the case, they don't get paid, but if they do win the case, they do get paid. This type of arrangement helps out the accused with monetary concerns and if an attorney does not go by a contingency based payment arrangement, they might make other type of provisions.
For anyone, especially those engaged in criminal behavior, it is a good idea to interview attorneys before anything happens. Many of them will allow a free consultation and the best place for this to happen is in their office, before something bad happens, not in a prison cell after something bad has happened. This is not to say that an individual is going to go out and look for trouble. Interviewing a lawyer is like interviewing a doctor, on would hope they never have to use their services, but just in case they might, they will know which one is best to call.
Depending on the severity of the charges, some of the accused could need extra funds to get out of jail before their trial. There are people who are in the wrong place at the wrong time all the time and get picked up by the police for all types of reasons. They could be doing nothing more than standing next to someone who has just committed a crime and by association, the innocent person will get hauled in to jail for questioning and could end up being incarcerated. This happens all the time, innocent people go to prison all the time. When a person who has done nothing wrong is arrested, they need to say nothing and wait for a criminal defense in Los Angeles attorney to help them out.