Do not believe that just because someone is charged by a law
enforcement representative that they are guilty. Charges are laid for
a variety of reasons including pressure from the public, pressure from
supervisors, to improve clear up rates, department policy, the shotgun
approach, poor police work and faulty investigations. We are
here to take that police brief or investigation, dissect it, find the
witnesses and exculpatory evidence the police would prefer wasn't
presented in court and locate the grounds for reasonable doubt. We also look to mitigate the damage done by people's
actions, done in the heat of the moment, with thing such as negotiated
outcomes and diversion to other arena's, rather than criminal hearings. We need to be bought in early, to do our job effectively. We need a
copy of any police brief or correspondence. We need your version of
events. When people are charged, summonsed, given a notice to
appear or simply taken before a court, they are taken before a court where for criminal matters they
usually have three choices. These are to plead guilty, plead not
guilty or seek a remand to obtain legal advice. For more serious
matters people will appear to have bail enlarged so that a date for a
committal hearing may be set down. An indication of a plea may be made. People
do not always plead guilty because they are guilty. Some people plead
guilty to protect others, some people plead guilty because the cost of
defending themselves is too high, and the outcome of a court hearing
can never be guaranteed. Some people plead guilty because they lose
hope. In some jurisdictions an early guilty plea is taken into
consideration when sentencing. For myself I would always choose
a trial by jury, if possible, because you would hope that a jury would
see things in the shades of grey that is life, rather the black and white of statute law. Remember you are dealing with a court system, not a justice system, the two are not identical. We investigate for both the prosecution and the defence, in different settings (e.g private criminal actions, civil actions relating to criminal activity). We cannot work for both sides of the same matter.
