Things to Do When You are Arrested Part 3
Once you are arrested, assuming you are able to post bond, you should hire a Tampa lawyer right away to intervene with the State Attorney’s office that will be making the final and formal charging decision on your case. Once you are formally charged your case will be scheduled for an initial court appearance known as an arraignment. During this proceeding your lawyer will enter a Not guilty plea on your behalf and will request what is called “Discovery”. Discovery will include all police reports, witness statements, results of scientific testing, lab reports, and all evidence that State will intend to use against you. Your lawyer will then analyze this information and prepare to schedule depositions of all witnesses. Depositions are sworn statements given by state witnesses to your lawyer so he can more accurately understand the case and prepare a defense on your behalf. This is a critical stage in the proceedings. It is important to have an experienced lawyer on your side that knows how to take depositions, knows how to prepare, and someone who will go through deposition process with the defense in mind before taking statements.
Things to expect if you are arrested.
If you are arrested and charged with a crime without the ability to bond out of jail you will be taken before a magistrate within 24 hours whom will advise you of the nature of the charges and set bail if you are so entitled. The case will then proceed to the State Attorney’s office and an assistant state attorney will ultimately decide what if anything to charge you with. If the assistant state attorney decides to charge you formally a document called the “information” will be prepared. The document will be filed with the Clerk of Circuit Court and initial court hearings will be scheduled.
Your first court appearance will be an arraignment in which your lawyer will plead you “Not Guilty”. A second court appearance will be scheduled called a disposition or a pre-trial conference. At this preceding the judge will inquiry from your lawyer and the assistant state attorney whether you are conclude the matter with a plea bargain or wish to have a trial. There also may be legal motions filed by your Tampa Criminal Defense lawyer to contest the legality of the arrest or to attempt to suppress evidence the state intends to use against you. It is critically important that that you have an experienced Tampa criminal defense lawyer on your side that knows how to analyze and prepare said motions and who is experienced trial lawyer.
If you have been arrested in Tampa, Florida, call Tampa Criminal Defense Lawyer Daniel Fernandez at 813-229-5353 or read more at: TampaCriminalDefenseLawyer.com
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