Preparing a Defense for White Collar Crimes in Maryland

The initial steps that a Maryland white collar crimes lawyer can take when preparing a defense against a white collar crime are going to be very similar to those that he or she would take in preparing a defense against any other type of crime.

Initially, the lawyer will meet with the defendant in order to fully hear the defendant’s account of exactly what happened. After this meeting, the defense attorney can immediately start preparing a defense for the white collar crime by reviewing documents, which allows him or her to spend a significant amount of time analyzing the evidence to determine that the state must prove in order to convict the defendant and to see if the state can prove each and every element of the offense.

Evidence

In certain situations, a lawyer will not compile any evidence while preparing a defense to a white collar charge. Sometimes, preparing a defense is a matter of reviewing the state’s evidence and finding holes in its arguments, such as places in which the state is lacking the evidence necessary to prove an element of the offense. Under such circumstances, the job of the attorney is not to compile evidence but to analyze all of the evidence that the state has and look for the deficits in this evidence.

When it comes to proving white collar crime, the evidence is often comprised solely of records, such as bank accounts, applications for credit cards, or applications for loans. Because of this, it is important that an attorney reviews all relevant documents to determine if there is a place in which the state will not be able to prove its case.

However, in other situations, it may be important for the attorney to actively seek and compile evidence. For example, if the defendant was given permission to do certain things and the charges allege that he or she acted without permission, the defense attorney will gather any evidence that can support the claim that the defendant acted with permission.

Hiring an Attorney

An attorney who represents and has defended a significant number of white collar crimes is going to be more familiar with the process of proving such cases, as he or she is more likely to be familiar with the volume and complexity of the associated evidence. Often, the state will have a paper trail that shows that the defendant committed some sort of offense. An attorney who is more familiar with such evidence will be much better prepared than an attorney who has never defended a person in a case involving white collar crime. In this way, familiarity with the evidence is the greatest distinction between a general criminal attorney and an attorney who is familiar with white collar crime.