Defendant's Rights

What Constitutes Illegal Search and Seizure?

Today, more so than ever perhaps, the exact definition of your rights preventing illegal search and seizure are in flux.   Theoretically speaking, the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution curtails...

The Rights of Individuals in Prison

While prisoners are stripped of many of their civil rights, there are many protections still in place for prisoners per federal and state laws.   For starters, the Eighth Amendment protects all prisoners from cruel...

How Plea Bargaining Works

A plea bargain is defined as an agreement in a criminal case between the prosecutor and the defendant where the prosecutor convinces the defendant to plead guilty to a lesser charge or to the original charge with a recommendation of a lighter sentence. A plea bargain allows the defendant to skip the lengthy process of a court trial and to avoid being convicted of the possible stronger charge.

How to Talk to the Police and Protect Yourself

Talking with police officers is usually one of the more stressful encounters we have in our lives, and one that we typically avoid at all costs.   As nice as they sometimes are, police officers, particularly detectives...

Private Criminal Defense Attorneys, Court Appointed Attorneys and Self Representation

In criminal cases, if incarceration is a potential outcome of a criminal case, all defendants must be provided a court-appointed attorney.   Defendants, however, may elect to use a private criminal defense attorney...

Rights of the Defense During Trial

During every criminal trial, defendants enjoy a number of legal rights and protections, which have been in place since the ratification of the Constitution’s Bill of Rights, most notably the fourteenth...

How to Prepare a Defense Strategy for a Criminal Case

It is integral how an attorney and a defendant collaborate to produce their version of events regarding a criminal charge brought by prosecutors.   The term “version”, although insinuating an alteration...

Defining Probable Cause

Probable cause is defined as the right of a police officer to make an arrest, conduct a personal or property search, or to obtain a warrant for an arrest or a search. The term probable cause arose in the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution which defines the rights to freedom from unreasonable search and seizures without probable cause or a warrant. The Amendment reads like this:

Arrested: Defendants Rights at Arrest

Although often used as a collective term, being placed “under arrest” is a specific legal situation where an individual is no longer legally able to walk away from law enforcement, which often is well before being processed...