What Kinds Of Cases Does A Felony Lawyer Typically Handle?
The types of cases that a felony lawyer typically handles are wide-ranging.
A criminal felony charge typically means one that carries a punishment of one year or longer in prison.
In addition, a felony lawyer may handle felony criminal cases that have been charged either by Federal prosecutors in the Federal Courts, or by State prosecutors in the State Courts.
With regard to Federal felonies, people sometimes think such charges are limited to “white collar” cases or drug cases. That is definitely not the case. Many “street crimes” that are also regularly charged as felonies in State Court, are also regularly charged as felonies under Federal law. For example, in addition to drug cases, typical Federal cases that are handled by a felony lawyer include gun possession cases, gun sale cases, conspiracies involving the sale or purchase of guns, car jackings, robberies that affect “interstate commerce,” bank robberies, gang conspiracies, sex crimes, pornography, certain types of kidnappings, and a variety of other charges that the public often views as street crimes.
In addition to those types of felonies in the Federal courts, a felony lawyer also regularly handles a variety of other types of Federal felonies, including health care fraud, embezzlement, mortgage fraud, identity theft, “ponzi-like” schemes, money laundering, conspiracy of all types, mail and wire fraud cases that involve virtually any type of underlying fraud that can be imagined, and federal “hate crimes.”
With regard to State felonies, a felony lawyer regularly handles a wide variety of violent and other street crimes, including drug crimes, gun crimes, murder, gang crimes, kidnapping, robbery, burglary, rape and other sex crimes and pornography. However, a felony lawyer also handles, but to a substantially lesser extent, felony cases that have been charged in State Courts which involve “white collar” type of offense. That said, the dockets of State prosecutors are often so filled with street crimes that they defer to Federal prosecutors to bring such white collar prosecutions.
When hiring a felony lawyer, asks questions of the lawyer candidates and choose your felony lawyer wisely. The stakes, in terms of potential time in prison as well as the variety of possible collateral consequences impacting one’s life (i.e., including voting rights, registration requirements, job opportunities, and potential removal from the United States) make this decision an important one. This is not the time for “on the job” training. Look for an experienced trial lawyer who actually regularly takes cases before juries, and has a history of winning.
Written by:
Michael I. Leonard -Leonard Trial Lawyers