Up until May 5, 2013, Louisiana authorities could arrest people for driving in Louisiana without proper documentation of immigration status. This law was called Driving without Lawful Presence but was informally known as the Driving while Hispanic law. This was actually a felony offense with up to a year in prison. My Law Firm has [...]
Arrests for the possession of small amounts of marijuana are very common in Lafayette Parish. In many cases, the person will simply receive a summons for a misdemeanor charge of simple possession of marijuana. Most commonly an arrest occurs when the police pulls someone over for a traffic violation such as broken tail light or [...]
In the movie 21 Jump Street, a rookie police officer has difficulty reciting the Miranda Rights, explaining that the movies always cut away before the actor finished reciting them. In reality, the police know Miranda Rights, or the Miranda Warning, very well. These are the Miranda Rights: “You have the right to remain silent. Anything [...]
In the United States we are very lucky to have the constitutional right to avoid “unreasonable search and seizures.” Your property can still be searched by the police, but they have to have “probable cause” in order to do so. Probable cause means that the police have a reasonable belief that a certain crime has [...]
One of the questions my law office receives most often is — am I eligible for pre trial diversion? In a previous post, First Time Offenders: Louisiana Pretrial Diversion Law, I explained how the Louisiana pre trial diversion process works. This post covers the specific eligibility requirements for entering the Pretrial Diversion Program of the [...]
When a jury for a criminal trial cannot agree to a verdict, a mistrial is declared. Mistrials can be advantageous for a criminal defendant because the State may decide not to retry the case and the charge will be dismissed. And even if there is a second trial, the defendant’s criminal defense lawyer now knows [...]
Many of my criminal defense clients and their families ask similar questions — What diversion programs are available? Am I eligible? What about work release, GPS monitoring, and day reporting programs? Could I enter a drug diversion program? Where do I go for my court mandated drug tests? How do I contact an inmate? What [...]
In criminal cases where there are multiple defendants for a single crime, the district attorney or prosecuting attorney can bill the charge under one docket number. This means that all defendants will be tried at the same time in front of one jury or judge. One Criminal Trial for All Defendants However, it is often [...]
While people may know that the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution protects them against “unreasonable search and seizure,” they may not know the practical aspects of this right. This is a real life example that shows how the Amendment can protect your rights: I have a client who had been charged with possession of [...]
As a Louisiana criminal defense attorney, I frequently have clients who are trying to decide if they should accept a plea agreement or go to trial. A key element of the decision making process is the possible sentence exposure – that is, how many years in prison the District Attorney is offering versus what the [...]