COPWATCH.com

IDEAS OF GENERAL APPLICABILITY TO MOUNTING YOUR CRIMINAL DEFENSE


DISCLAIMER: WE ARE NOT AUTHORIZED TO PRACTICE LAW IN ILLINOIS. THE CONTENT OF THIS PAGE THEREFORE CONSTITUTES LAY OPINION, AND IS NOT TO BE RELIED UPON AS LEGAL ADVICE. CONSULT YOUR OWN ATTORNEY TO DETERMINE THE BEST MANNER OF ADDRESSING ANY LEGAL PROBLEM YOU MAY HAVE.



1. ATTORNEY SELECTION AND RELATIONS:

To help ensure that you are protected, you should try to hire the best attorney you can afford.

With respect to finding a good civil or criminal attorney, perhaps you can call your local public defender agencies and prevail upon a few attorneys to offer some recommendations. Word of mouth and recommendations from friends, relatives, and acquaintances may also prove helpful.

You should try to stay in constant contact with your attorney, particularly if he is a public defender. Call him every day and try to make sure that preparations are proceeding in a timely manner. E-mail him too, and write an occasional letter, (perhaps send it by certified mail).

Typically, public defenders are so overworked that they can't take the time to really work on any individual case. In general, their first inclination is to plea bargain it down.

It might not be a good idea to take a plea bargain unless there's a very good reason to do so (such as a serious potential sentence, or prior convictions that could result in a harsher sentence). Don't take your attorney (particularly a public defender) at his word if he advises a plea bargain. Look into it on your own.

Also, be skeptical if your attorney asks you to sign a continuance, (allowing your court date to be postponed beyond whatever the local speedy trial timeline requires). Public defenders routinely cooperate with prosecutors on such matters, to the detriment of their clients' interests.

Whenever you talk with your attorney, take detailed notes of what he says. (It can't hurt to recapitulate these notes in your occasional letter to him, to document your understanding of what he has told you). If anything sounds funny, try to verify it on your own.

If you able to intelligently discuss some relevant cases and terminology when you meet with your attorney, he might be inclined to spend some more time on your case.

It's possible that your attorney will be no smarter than you are, and he might be only slightly familiar with the law on this issue. Don't be intimidated, and don't believe that a public defender will truly have your best interests at heart. You've got to remain in the driver's seat- after all, it's your ass that's on the line. No one cares about the outcome of your case as much as you do.

If you don't think that your attorney is doing a good job, fire him and get another one before trial. Public defenders can also be replaced, if you make your dissatisfaction known with enough vehemence.


2. LEGAL RESEARCH

It is absolutely crucial that you do as much research on your own as you can. Have your attorney explain exactly what you are charged with, and the elements of the charge, and any other relevant issues. Take detailed notes, then go to your local public law library (at a public law school or the county), and ask the law librarian point you in the right direction. You should try to ensure that the law librarian becomes your best friend, because she can really help you out.

A good place to start your research is with the annotated state law. The annotated version will list relevant cases under each law, with one-paragraph summaries of each case.

Look also at the state "Digest", a multi-volume set of state law organized by topic. These volumes also contain one-paragraph summaries of each case compiled under each topic, so it is easy to find the cases which might be relevant to your situation.

Find the law under which you were charged (this should be listed on the ticket or other paperwork that you have already received). Then, to make sure you didn't miss anything helpful, look in the index under all potentially relevant topics (in your case, eavesdropping, tape recording, audio recording, wiretapping, etc).

When examining the Annotated State Law and the Digest, be sure to look in the "pocket parts" as well (the paperback supplement inserted into the back of each volume).

You have to read the full text of each case that you think might be helpful, in order to verify that the issues presented are similar enough to the issues presented by your case to be relevant.

Ideally, you should have the law librarian show you how to shepardize those cases you have determined to be helpful (a process which verifies that the case has not been modified or overruled). There might be a method available of doing this online.

While you are at the law library, obtain a copy of the administrative policy manuals/procedure guides from the relevant police agencies. You might have to go to the city/county clerk to look at these documents. Examine the sections dealing with your issue.

It's important to get a copy of your local court rules, and examine particularly the deadlines applicable to each aspect of the case.

Make absolutely certain that you ask the librarian if there are some "Practice Manuals" covering the issue you are interested in (in your case, criminal law). Such manuals can be extremely helpful. Some of them even go so far as to prepare a ready-to-use list of discovery demands and potential pre-trial motions.


3. RUDIMENTARY LEGAL PROCEDURE AND STRATEGY

Here's some more ideas, procedure-wise:

- submit an exhaustive discovery request, using the fruits of your research to make a list of all information which might be useful;
- demand a jury trial;
- determine if there are any pre-trial motions which should be made;
- file for a bill of particulars;
- consider filing an affidavit of prejudice against whatever judge is assigned to the case, particularly if your attorney thinks he's bad. I'm not sure, but it's possible that your attorney can also file an affidavit- essentially giving you a total of two "preemptory challenges" to potential judges.

All of these ideas follow specific timelines, and must be completed within a varying number of days before trial. Local court rules dictate the applicable timelines.

Strategically, it can be advantageous to wait until the last possible minute to file each separate motion. The applicable deadlines are often determined by counting backward from the date of trial- i.e. a motion must be filed, and a response received, by a particular number of days before trial. If the prosecutor misses any deadline, you can often get the case dismissed. Therefore, so as to give the prosecutor as little time as possible to respond, you might consider waiting until the last minute before filing certain documents. The risk of this strategy, however, is that you can easily miss a deadline of your own, and lose your case on a technicality. Mark all the applicable dates on a calendar, so that you don't lose track.

Frequently, one of best means of defeating a charge is through the inattentiveness of the prosecutors office. If they don't conduct the trial within the speedy trial period, or if they don't comply with the procedural requirements, the charge can be dismissed. It sometimes makes sense to bombard them with as many different motions and required-response requests as possible.

In your situation, your discovery request might include a demand for transcripts or audiotapes of the police radio communications occurring subsequent to your initial request for the complaint forms.

Alternatively, you could submit a public disclosure request for this material, assuming that a response would be required within your timeline (see our Fight Back section for a link to an automatic letter generator).


4. CONCLUSION

If you use this as an opportunity to thoroughly learn state law on this issue, then not only are you are more likely to win, but, if there is a next time, you might be in a good position to "set them up" in a manner which could garner a cash settlement.

Anyone with additional advice should submit it through the discussion forum or e-mail links below.


Back to "Action Alert"


COPWATCH.com Home

E-MAIL

DISCUSSION FORUM

Click Here!

1