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 –…
If you are a defendant in a trial and you are called to the stand to testify, it will only be by your lawyer. The prosecution cannot order you to testify at trial and cannot call you to the stand…
Everyone has heard of the term “fair trial’ – but what does this really mean? The right to a fair trial is part of our constitutional right to due process. This means that your life, liberty and property cannot be…
“What did they really see?” This was the title of a New York Times editorial about the New Jersey Supreme Court’s recent decision to impose stricter guidelines for using eyewitness evidence. As I mentioned in a previous blog ("Eyewitness Identification…
Sometimes the only evidence against the defendant of a crime will be eyewitness identification. This is when a person actually sees the defendant committing the crime. This would seem to be highly reliable evidence. However, eye witness identification is actually…
Grand Jury Indictments vs. Bill of Information After a person is arrested for a crime in Louisiana, they will have criminal charges filed against them in either a Grand Jury Indictment or a Bill of Information. These documents list the…
In my approximately 25 years as a trial attorney, I have often run across the problem of locating witnesses and making sure that they attend at trial. Subpoenas, which are court orders for a witness to appear at trial, should…
My criminal defense clients are often surprised about how long it takes the State to bring them to trial. In some cases, you may not want to rush to trial. For example, if there is a lot of evidence against…
Plea bargaining is the process of negotiating a plea between the defendant’s criminal defense attorney, the prosecuting attorney and sometimes the judge. Generally, the prosecution or the State offers concessions to the defendant in exchange for a guilty plea. The…
The process of selecting a jury for civil and criminal trials is called voir dire. “Voir Dire” is a French phrase essentially meaning “to speak the truth.” This is the opportunity for the prosecuting and defense attorneys to size up…