Criminal Defense Attorney
You may find you need a criminal defense attorney for numerous reasons. The following are a list of situations where a criminal defense attorney may be helpful to your family and/or you. Craig M. Divine with the Divine Law Office, LLC is a criminal defense attorney. Contact Divine Law Office, LLC of Kansas City today for a free consultation.
Criminal Defense covers anything and everything for which you may have to appear in a criminal court. This can range from simple traffic tickets and municipal probation violations all the way up to the more serious offenses like Robbery, Rape, Sex Offenses and Child Abuse. It doesn’t matter if you are in municipal court or state court a criminal conviction can follow you for the rest of your life and can affect your ability to get housing, employment and even credit. Never go it alone, protection of yourself and your family requires an experienced criminal defense attorney who knows your rights and how to defend you in court.
Robbery
This is the taking of another’s property by force or the threat of the use of force. Using any kind of a weapon will get you an armed robbery charge which can also be aggravated armed robbery depending on the circumstances. I often see these charges with an accompanying armed criminal action or unlawful use of a weapon charge. These are serious felonies and often times depositions of eyewitnesses can make or break the case.
Sex Offenses
Most folks think of a sex offense and immediately think of rape. While rape is a serious sex offense in this case I am talking about lower level offenses. Believe it or not urinating in a park can be considered a sex offense as well as sending unwanted nude or semi-nude pictures. Of particular concern are offenses involving children. Most juveniles do not know that “sexting” with another minor can land them in big trouble for child pornography charges depending on the nature of the photo. Most of these offenses can result in LIFETIME registration as a sex offender and these case must be treated seriously.
Rape
In both Kansas and Missouri rape is treated almost as severely as murder and have the potential to carry a life sentence for a conviction. Many times these cases turn on the statements of the alleged victims and the forensic evidence collected at the hospital and police station. Rape cases require aggressive representation and the reliability of forensic evidence is often a central issue in the case, particularly in regards to the methods and care used in the collection of evidence and the amount of time between the alleged offense and the reporting of it.
Child Abuse
Did your parents or grandparents have you pull a switch off the tree? Ever been spanked with a belt or a paddle? Many of us have and may have even used those same tried and true discipline methods from back in the day but if you have you could be looking at child abuse charges. Times have changed and methods once commonplace and generally approved now can constitute child abuse, especially if marks or bruises are left. Mild cases will land you in municipal court but more serious cases are felonies and can affect your ability to be around children, even close family, and will make it difficult to impossible to find decent work.
Probation Violations
Whether it is city probation or state probation if you don’t follow the rules that jail sentence you avoided may be imposed if the court finds you have violated the probation agreement. Whether it’s a serious violation like picking up new charges or a minor violation like missing an appointment let a lawyer discuss the violation with the prosecutor so you don’t make any admissions that can land you in jail.
Traffic Offenses
Whether it’s a parking ticket or multiple speeding tickets, no insurance, expired tags, turn violations or the like it is rarely in your best interests to just go in and pay the ticket. While that is often the easiest, and seemingly cheapest, resolution paying a ticket means pleading guilty to the offense which will put points on your license. Too many points and you will have you license suspended and can see your insurance rates spike. You can also automatically lose your license for a plea to no insurance, especially if you got that ticket after a traffic accident.
A criminal defense attorney may be able to help you with any of the examples above.
Contact the Divine Law Office, LLC of Kansas City for a free consultation.
Attorney Craig M. Divine is a member of both the Missouri Bar Association and Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association .