What do people turn to criminal defense lawyers for?

Or what about immigration law? What applies there?

In many of the practice areas that we specialize in, the goal is to protect the individual from unfair or excessive prosecution in its many forms.

Let’s start from the principle that the justice system is made to operate a certain way. Then you have what you could call a “margin for error,” although it seems rather callous to call it that when you’re dealing with human lives.

The issue of excessive prosecution applies critically here. People become targets of prosecutors or other parties, and they lose much of the stability that they value in their lives as well as assets, freedoms, and possibilities for the future.

Here’s part of what we work with as we help to protect clients from the hardships of unfair prosecution.

Timelines

Most people with a passing familiarity with the justice system know that individuals charged with crimes will often sit in jail prior to a trial or hearing unless they have liquid capital to post bond. This is just one aspect of considering prosecution timelines that can affect someone’s life.

Another issue that we talk about on the site is post-conviction relief – that is, the consequences that continue to apply after an individual has paid his or her debt to society, as they say in the legal world. We help to clear the name of a defendant who experiences the aftereffects of a conviction following them later in life.

Jail Time and Probation

Then there is the sequence of events around a criminal charge and its aftermath.

Judges sentence defendants to particular amounts of incarceration, either in the home or in prison.

After that, they go through probation, where their freedoms are greatly restricted in a number of ways. Violations return the individual to the justice system for further sentencing.

As with other aspects we talked about above, these types of cases can trigger excessive prosecution and upend people’s lives unfairly.

Costs

This is one that might not be talked about quite as much, but experienced attorneys know that individual defendants often bear the costs of their own prosecution.

Take the example of monitoring bracelets that are used in house arrest situations, or home detention.

These items can range into the hundreds of dollars, and it’s almost always the defendant who has to pay for these out-of-pocket.

There are many different examples of this, but that’s just one way that prosecution can affect someone’s financial life and future.

Turn to Empire Law for criminal defense and immigration defense protection. We have a heart for our clients and will help you to get your voice heard in a court of law!