What Are the Most Common Types of Crimes?
We represent people for crimes including driving under the influence, CDS, meaning “Controlled Dangerous Substances,” including drug cases, assaults, theft, and driving on a suspended license. We also handle a fair amount of fire arm violations.
Do You Represent People Who Are Unaware That Their Crimes Are Actually Crimes?
This would usually involve fire arm violations, because people are obviously aware about the regulations and laws requiring fire arms, although given the complex nature of them especially in Maryland, a lot of people unwittingly run afoul of them, like hunters, sport shooters and a fair amount of people passing through Maryland with a carry permit not realizing they would be coming through this area of Maryland and not realizing they did not have reciprocity so they would flash their carry permit but then end up going to jail.
Do You Represent People For White-Collar Crimes?
Yes, we have handled some of these cases, and they generally involve some kind of theft or embezzlement scheme.
Do You Ever Represent People Who Are Involved In Embezzlement?
Yes, although we do not see a lot of that.
Do You Represent People For Petty Larceny?
Maryland does not really have something called “Petty Larceny” per se. They have theft statutes with different amounts involved and certainly more often than not, most theft schemes involve the smaller numbers.
What Is The Difference Between A Misdemeanor And A Felony?
This would vary a lot between specific crimes. A felony charge would be reserved for more serious crimes because felonies generally carry much more serious punishments such as more jail time and higher fines, but a felony conviction would also result in a loss of a right to vote, loss of a right to hold public office, loss of a right to possess a firearm, and it could affect the person’s ability to get jobs more seriously than a misdemeanor. It could also be a bar to military service.
What Does It Mean To Be Indicted?
There are generally three basic ways to be charged in Maryland. The state could file the charges in district court, or they could file a criminal information in circuit court, which would by far be the most common ways the state would proceed in Maryland.
Maryland still has the indictment system which is based on the result of a grand jury process. In the present day, the grand jury system in many states including Maryland is more of a political dodge by the state’s attorneys when they feel like they need to or should file charges but they do not want to be the bad guy dropping the hammer for some political reasons. In this situation, they take the case to the grand jury and then the grand jury indicts the person, so that the grand jury ends up being the bad guys.
How Can Someone Contact You To Set Up A Free Initial Consultation?
I am easy to contact, and anyone would just need to call my office at 301-387-2800. The odds are that the person would not get me right away, but I would get back to them if the client left a voice message with their contact information and their name.
What Is Your Favorite Victory While Defending A Criminal Case? Any Unusual Cases?
I handled a case recently in which a new young prosecutor in Western Maryland was flexing his wings, as it were, and not making deals the way one would expect. I dug my heels in and took a multiple felony case to trial. It was a case where the facts were not fairly investigated by the police and the prosecutor’s office would not take a closer look at it.
I had alibi witnesses for the time of the crime but they would not look at those, so I took it to trial and was able to do a skillful cross-examination and burned the state’s witnesses. I brought in the alibi witnesses and managed to get a verdict of guilty across the board. It was a great victory and it gave me a lot of credibility with the new state’s attorney. The gallery actually applauded when the not guilty verdicts came across, so that was great.
The downside was that the evidence was actually very compelling that the defendant had not done the crime, which is something that would make it very stressful for a criminal defense attorney.
People often ask why we need to defend guilty people, and the reason is because we hold the state to its burden of proof and get the best result we can. We lose a lot of sleep over someone being wrongfully accused, and knowing that innocent people do get convicted, can be very stressful for us. I have never had someone get convicted when he actually did not do the crime, but that is because I put in a lot of extra time to make sure that situation did not happen.
Is There Anything You Would Like Someone To Know?
We have seen a shift in the lawyer market in western Maryland, where a lot of the old established guard has retired and we find ourselves at the peak of our carriers as being that law firm, three middle-aged attorneys who have all litigated a lot of cases both criminal and civil, so that if it is not a case we handle, we can help people find someone who could handle it, and if we do take a case, then we would find some way to get the client out of the charges or get them a good civil result.
For more information on Common Types of Crimes, a free initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking talk Arnold F. Phillips by calling today.