Victim Restitution in California Criminal Cases
If you are convicted of a misdemeanor or felony offense and the victim of your crime sustained some form of loss, the court will generally order you to pay restitution to the victim to recover those losses. Paying victim restitution will be a condition on your probation. Victim restitution is... View Article
Domestic Violence Penalties in California
Most people who have been accused of a domestic related crime have many questions about potential penalties they will face if convicted. Under California law, there are many types of charges related to domestic violence and subsequent penalties. Most cases are filed as a misdemeanor crimes and there are several that... View Article
Criminal Threats in Domestic Violence Cases in Los Angeles
Getting charged with a domestic violence related crime doesn’t always involve the use of physical force. Under California Penal Code 422, it’s a crime to make criminal threats against a victim and these frequently include a spouse, cohabitant, family member, or co-parent. Penal Code 422 prohibits making willful threats to... View Article
Misdemeanor vs Felony Domestic Violence Charges in Los Angeles
Under California law, domestic violence is generally defined as a physical assault against a current or former spouse, cohabitant, boyfriend, girlfriend, a person who has a child with victim, or another type of relationship described under the domestic violence statute. A domestic violence crime includes a physical assault, like pushing,... View Article
Factual Innocence Motion in California – Penal Code 851.8
There are California criminal cases where the person arrested didn’t commit the crime. In legal terms, this means they are factually innocent of illegal conduct and were falsely accused of committing a criminal offense. There have been cases when someone was falsely accused because of overly aggressive police tactics in... View Article
Motion to Withdraw a Plea – California Penal Code 1018
The withdrawal of a Plea is described California Penal Code 1018, which grants a defendant the right to withdrawal a guilty or no-contest plea, if there is good cause. This means a defendant who pleads guilty in a criminal case part of a plea agreement, could decide they made a... View Article
California Invasion of Privacy Laws
There have been many invasion of privacy cases in California that have received significant media attention. A lot of news outlets cover the event using private and graphic pictures that were posted on a social media platform without consent from either party involved. In some situations, criminal or civil action... View Article
Reduce a Felony Conviction to Misdemeanor – California Penal Code 17(b)
Reducing a felony conviction on your criminal record to a misdemeanor is described under California Penal Code Section 17(b). In other words, if you were convicted of certain California felony crimes, you have a chance of getting them reduced to a misdemeanor crime. This means a felony conviction is not... View Article
Attempted Crimes in California – Penal Code 664 and 21(a)
California Penal Code Sections 664 and 21(a) are the statutes that descried attempted crimes. In other words, attempting to commit a crime is itself a crime, and a separate offense that can be charged on its own. This means if you attempt to commit a crime, but are unsuccessful in... View Article
California Self-Defense Laws
California’s self-defense laws allow you to protect yourself in certain situations. By law, you can’t be guilty of a violent crime that you may have committed in order to protect yourself, as long as the conduct was “reasonable under the circumstances.” This primary factor is often aggressively debated by defense... View Article