Hiring an Anne Arundel County Stalking Lawyer
A person who is convicted of stalking can face many different penalties, including incarceration, periods of supervised probation, or payments of fines and costs to the court. There are any number of consequences that a judge has at their disposal depending on the kind of case. In order to avoid these penalties, or at least mitigate them, someone charged with stalking in Anne Arundel County, should strongly consider hiring an attorney with local experience who knows how to work with these cases and the local court system.
Qualities to Look For in a Lawyer
Someone facing these charges should look to hire an attorney who has a great deal of experience with the kinds of cases that have been alleged against them. The should look for somebody who has a working relationship with the prosecutors, judges, and other parties in the case and somebody the individual feels comfortable with, who is answering their questions to the best of their ability, and makes them feel comfortable.
Somebody that a person feels is trustworthy is essential, since these cases can sometimes last a long time and the relationships between an attorney and client needs to be built on trust. Trust allows a person to feel like they are going to get the best representation possible and reassures them that their attorney has their best interests at heart.
Preparing a Defense For Stalking Charges
Criminal lawyers will take a number of different steps in preparing a defense for stalking charges, but perhaps the most important one is to find out whether the people involved in a stalking case knew each other prior to the incident at hand. If they knew each other, what kinds of biases do they carry into this case that might have actually been from some other incident that took place challenging the credibility of the complaining witness. That is important information because most of the time, stalking charges are going to be between people who know each other and have had a relationship of some kind in the past.
Making a Plea Deal
If the evidence the prosecution has against a person is very strong, and they have admissible video surveillance and/or police confession, those pieces of evidence might be too difficult to overcome in a courtroom. In such cases, a person might be penalized by the court or face stricter penalties if they do not negotiate a plea deal. Plea deals are always something to be considered. Deciding whether a plea is something that is appropriate to accept or not to accept is a determination to be made together by an individual and their hired attorney. That will depend on the strength or weakness of the government’s case.
Benefits of Having a Lawyer
It is important to have a criminal lawyer any time that somebody is charged with a crime, especially one like stalking, because it carries a possibility of jail time. There are rules of evidence and other pieces of information that only an experienced defense attorney who has experience handling stalking charges in the Anne Arundel County court system would know how to properly address in the courtroom. Without those experiences available, a prosecutor would be able to introduce evidence without objection from the defense and be able to prove a case against the individual much more easily.
Even if a person sees that the evidence against him is so strong that they cannot overcome it, it is still important to hire an Anne Arundel attorney who can assist them with the possible admissibility of that evidence, and, if it is in fact admissible, with appropriate sentencing and appropriate punishment for the actual criminal offense that has been alleged.