Law & Information
Why should I pay for a lawyer when the public defender will handle my case for free?
As a former public defender I have seen first hand the benefits and consequences to letting a public defender handle your case. Although the public defenders are highly skilled and experienced attorneys, they can be severely overworked. They carry a caseload of up to 20 clients a day! What this means for their clients is that the public defender cannot afford to spend more than a few minutes on the…
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YOU HAVE TOO MUCH AT STAKE TO NOT SEEK A SECOND OPINION ON YOUR CASE
You are facing a serious legal matter. Often it can lead to you going to jail, or losing your job or your driving privilege. You may have hired the first lawyer you spoke to. You may be feeling a little uneasy about the answers that lawyer is giving you. Maybe your phone calls are not always being returned. You are unclear about the direction your case is headed. What do…
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Clients Represented by Court Appointed Lawyers Do More Jail Time
A recent study from an economist at Harvard concluded that defendants who have a court appointed lawyer, who is paid for at taxpayer expense, serve more jail time than defendants represented by federal public defenders. The study found that defendants represented by court appointed lawyers who bill the county by the hour do an average of eight months longer in jail than those who were represented by the federal public…
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Can I Win a New Trial if My Lawyer Was Incompetent and Failed to Call Witnesses in My Defense?
Writ of Habeas Corpus Many people who are found guilty after a jury trial feel that they were unfairly convicted. They often feel that their trial lawyer did not do a good job representing them. In some cases, a person who does not feel that he received adequate legal representation can be successful in winning a new trial. The legal process that is followed in most of these situations is…
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SEX CRIMES AND VIDEOTAPE
There seems to be a trend developing of people taking pictures of themselves doing wild and crazy things, and in particular using their cell phone cameras to photograph themselves having sex. This might be great entertainment to show your friends at parties, but people who take pictures like this need to be more alert about what they leave stored on their cell phone – particularly if the picture is of…
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3 STRIKES MEANS 25 TO LIFE IN CALIFORNIA
In California if you have two prior strikes and you are arrested for a new felony you will be facing 25 years to life in prison. Many people do not know that what determines whether you will be facing a "third strike offense" is your prior convictions and not the nature of the current felony that you may be accused of. This means that no matter what felony you now…
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Can Your Felony Sentence Be Reduced Due to New Supreme Court Decisions?
If you were sentenced to prison within the last few years, it is critical that you have your sentence reviewed by an experienced criminal defense law firm. Recently, the United States Supreme Court ruled that California's sentencing laws for felony matters were unconstitutional. The California legislature has rushed to try to change the law to prevent thousands of sentences from being reversed. Two new California Supreme Court decisions were just…
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How does California feel about Dog Fighting?
Anybody who has not been hiding under a rock lately has heard about the legal troubles facing a certain high profile professional athlete and his purported involvement in Dog Fighting. The legal problems facing Michael Vick stem greatly from the participation across state lines in betting on, "sponsoring" and even hosting dog fighting events. Nobody knows exactly what this athlete's involvement was in these accusations, and until the court process…
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A Key Witness Leads to Court Victory
In a recent serious case handled by Wallin and Klarich, the police reports had one independent witness providing very incriminating evidence against our client. We realized that if this witness were to come to court and state the things that the police officer recorded in his report it would likely lead to his conviction. Wallin and Klarich did what we had to do to win the case. We immediately jumped…
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Investigation Is the Key to Success in Most Criminal Cases – Who You Have as Your Lawyer Can Make the Difference
In many criminal cases the difference between winning and losing has little to do with the truth. In most cases, it has much more to do with who the lawyers who are representing the parties. Often whether a defendant is found guilty or not guilty depends upon which side was able to present the best set of facts to the jury. This all starts with which lawyer will be doing…
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