Hiring A New Jersey Criminal Lawyer

By Edward Snyder


Local and federal law enforcement agencies normally carry out thorough investigations before choosing to charge a suspect with a criminal offense. However, they can choose to detain and interrogate a suspect as they continue with their investigations. Anyone who has any sort of link to the crime committed can be arrested and investigated. If you find yourself in this type of situation, it is important you hire a New Jersey criminal lawyer to help you out.

It is important to note that everyone has the right to have an attorney present when the police are interviewing them. Any evidence the police may collect during the interview without a lawyer present may be dismissed because it violated the rights of the defendant.

In the initial stages of a case, hiring an attorney is important because the evidence that the prosecutor and police possess may be insufficient. This means that the police would not have any reason to detain you. In such cases, your lawyer may threaten to sue the police for harassment. In many cases, this threat is enough to have you released.

When you are arraigned in court, the attorney will represent you and ask for a bail hearing during the first court appearance. Obviously, the prosecutor will oppose bail, but your attorney will provide evidence to show that you are not a flight risk or a danger to society. These are the two most common reasons used to deny defendants bail.

It is important to note that the burden of proof usually lies with the prosecution. This means that if the evidence produced by the prosecution is not enough to get a conviction, the court will give the accused the benefit of the doubt. When you hire an experienced attorney, you can be assured of having your case thrown out of court for lack of enough evidence.

If indeed you committed the crime and the evidence against you is overwhelming, your attorney will most likely advice you to agree to a plea deal. The state or federal prosecutor will be more willing to offer a reduced sentence to save time and resources. After all, there is no need of committing time, manpower and financial resources to a case whose outcome can easily be predicted. In such a case, your attorney will negotiate a better deal with the prosecutor.

When the sitting judge rules on a case and issues a sentence, your attorney can appeal both the ruling and the sentence. If the appeal of the ruling fails, the attorney will file an appeal against the long sentence. If the judge overlooked some facts or failed to take other facts into consideration when making the ruling, the case can go to a higher court.

There are thousands of criminal lawyers in New Jersey. However, their individual reputation differ greatly. That is why it is important to carry out a great deal of background research before making a decision. After all, it is your life, freedom and reputation that is at stake. In that regard, you should hire experienced lawyers who have a great reputation and have won hundreds of similar cases in the past.




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