When you hire a good criminal defense lawyer, you are making a smart move. If you are charged with a serious crime, there is a chance that you could lose your freedom for a very long time. It is not recommended that you face these kinds of charges without the best legal help that is available. When you are facing conviction and tough sentencing, you need a professional criminal lawyer that will work with you and understand your needs.

Hiring a Specialist

The average person may know little about the legal system, except what they see on television. When you find yourself in a great deal of trouble, there is not enough time to acquire the necessary knowledge about criminal law. A legal professional has years of important education, training and experience in these matters, and knows what to expect.

When you retain a professional, you have the best odds for success. Some might be tempted to go with a public defender, which is free of cost. The court appoints this attorney to the defendant, and the time spent on the case is usually limited to minutes. If you are charged with a serious criminal offense, you want to retain your own attorney who can devote the necessary time and energy to produce a good outcome in your case.

Advice from a Professional

When you need legal advice, an experienced criminal defense lawyer can tell you everything you need to know. This is a very crucial time in your life, and you cannot afford to make any more mistakes. A legal professional will advise you on the best course of action.

Understanding the System

A good lawyer will be able to evaluate your situation and advise you on whether it makes sense to go to trial or not. If not, your choices come down to either agreeing to a plea deal, or letting the judge decide your fate. Someone who is really good will know just how to maneuver the case to motivate the prosecution to agree to a favorable deal. This can result in years of your life.

If you go to trial, there may be a jury to consider. Before trial, there is a jury selection process, and your lawyer will be a big part of it. They will make sure that everyone on the jury is fair and impartial, and will try to weed out people who might be prejudiced against you. This can make the difference between freedom and jail time.

Conclusion

When you hire the services of an experienced criminal defense lawyer, you will have help with every important decision. Your lawyer will represent you in court, and will be there with you for difficult decisions. You may be under a great deal of pressure and stress, and it is important to have a reputable criminal lawyer on your side, thinking clearly and strategically.

If you’ve been arrested for a crime in Arizona, you can expect the state to prosecute you for your criminal acts. When you are facing a potential conviction and tough sentencing, an experienced Phoenix criminal lawyer will be necessary to mitigate the potential damage to your life. Spending years incarcerated can be devastating, and if you fight your charges you will almost always end up better of than if you hadn’t.

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Dealing with a court case is difficult. And it is even more so when dealing with a family court case. One of the most common that involves families is domestic violence. As would be expected, victims should be encouraged to stand up against such an offense. However, the family law that deals with domestic violence is as not as friendly as would be expected. For the most part, it is especially risky to victims. Aside from other difficulties the victims have to be faced with, the law requires victims to secure criminal case documents against the offender. In which case, domestic violence victims should be careful in making decisions from the filing of the case to the rest of handling the demands of the proceedings.

Aside from dealing with the case emotionally coupled with the shame of having to face such an issue, the victims also have to deal with legal aspects. There are many things to understand. Such elements can either make or break the chances in court. So it is important to have a better understanding of the law. In this regard, having a dependable legal counsel will be of great help.

A clear understanding of the family law and court limitations with regard to handling domestic violence cases should be established. Along with the hired lawyer, the victim should see to it that enough evidence is secured and duly presented in court. Of course, the defendant will have the chance to present or counter the accusations and can also present their own evidences against the victim. In this case, the victim should be prepared to make a defense for any possible accusations which may be presented in court.

As a prerequisite to filing for a domestic violence case, a criminal case should be duly filed. The victim should ensure that the police or the DA have the corresponding proof against the abuser. If none is filed, the victim should absolutely make a police report of the criminal act.

If things are particularly difficult just filing for the case, it will become even tougher during the case proceedings. Hence, extensive preparation is called for. The family law and the way victims are protected can be discouraging and it certainly involves legal complexities. This is why treading the case alone is not recommended. Having a dependable and credible lawyer for back up and guidance will be of great help to get through and possibly win the case.

DKY Law is the leading family law firm in the South Bay area. The South Bay includes Manhattan Beach, Torrance, Hermosa Beach, Lomita and Redondo Beach. DKY Law assists with various aspects of family and divorce law including child custody, spousal support and property division.

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Taking all the necessary and precautionary steps to prevent yourself from being a victim of identity theft does not guarantee that you will indeed be safe from this crime. Why so? The answer is simple: identity theft operates in various ways that can take advantage of your financial and personal information.

Since you do not know that your identity has already been stolen, once you realize that you are, everything will be too late. You are then left to deal with all the consequences and damages that the identity thief has left. Hence it is important that you expose yourself to the many types of identity theft so you’d know how to evade them.

1. Financial Identity Theft

This is probably the most common type of id theft that everyone is aware of. This takes place when an identity thief assumes your identity and utilizes your financial information to create a number of accounts under your name, of course, without your knowledge. The identity theft can also warrant the thief to obtain loans, credit cards, merchandise, vehicles home vacations houses and more. In the end, you will be left with millions of outstanding load and a huge debt on your credit account. Cleaning your credit and identity can be very tedious and painstaking.

2. Medical Identity Theft

Another type of identity theft is medical id theft. In this method, the criminal will utilize your personal information to avail of health and medical benefits or services. Victims of this type of medical identity theft are typically faced with huge billing statements and unclear and invalid medical files. You will not be able to avail of basic insurance like life and health insurance because someone has made a bad name out of your good credit standing status. So if, for instance, you are hospitalized and you’ve been a victim of medical identity fraud, then there is always a possibility that your insurance will not pay for your hospital bills because you have already claimed your insurance benefits.

3. Criminal Identity Theft

Id theft does not only include financial burdens but also criminal ones. If you are a victim of identity fraud, the thief can apply for a new driver’s license under your name. But what if the criminal who stole your identity also decided to steal a car and on the process, he left his driver’s license (with your name and address on it) on the scene of the crime. A warrant will be served for his arrest and since your name is on the license, then they can pinpoint the crime to you. How will you know when a crime has been committed under your name? You’ll never know unless you get caught speeding.

4. Character Identity Theft

There are also identity thieves who uses the identity of their new victim to get a new life. These types of thieves live out in the open and they work under your name. They can practically take over your life in all aspects-get married under your name, give birth under your name and file bankruptcy under your name.

Tina L. Douglas is a skilled writer from California. With numerous experiences in the field of writing for several financial institutions, she is greatly qualified across a variety of economic issues. Her notable pieces of writing involve identity protection service [http://identityprotectionservice.org/] or simply id protection service [http://idprotectionservices.net].

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It’s no secret that the USA has millions of illegal aliens within their borders. Almost every time the subject of undocumented workers is raised, someone is bound to point out some illegal immigration crime statistics to discuss the dark side of America’s illegal immigration problem.

The population of illegal immigrants in the US is around 11 million and of that, 57% are from Mexico while 24% are from other Latin American countries in Central America. The rest are from other, more distant parts of the world.

Of these millions of people, there are obviously bound to be some criminals among them. Although most are simply hard-working people out to make money in a more affluent country than their own, there are in fact those who commit petty and serious crimes.

Since these people are mostly undocumented by official government agencies, it is difficult to find reliable statistics on their activities. Crime is also very much underreported since illegal aliens are often reluctant or afraid to report crime to the authorities. In fact, many criminals will prey on the illegal immigrant population precisely because their victims are disinclined to report them to the authorities.

According to the Paw Hispanic Center website, in their investigation of immigration crime statistics and the federal law courts records, 40% of all sentenced federal offenders were Latinos. Of those, 72% were not U.S. citizens.

However, other studies have pointed out that cities with large illegal immigrant communities do not necessarily have more crimes committed in them than those without a large population of illegal immigrants.

What does that mean? Well, it doesn’t mean that illegal immigrant communities are full of criminals. Most illegal aliens simply work hard and oftentimes succeed in giving their families a better life through the sweat of their brow.

Discussions of crime and illegal aliens often become highly passionate and politicized. Most recently, the murder of an Arizona rancher (Rob Krentz) last March 2010 allegedly by an illegal alien has ignited the controversy yet again.

Partly as a result of extensive media coverage surrounding the murder, Arizona passed the Arizona SB1070 bill to bring to an end anti-illegal immigration crime. The bill is today’s toughest state immigration law yet and its critics say that it will lead to a sharp increase in discrimination and harassment of illegal aliens. The law is particularly strict with requiring aliens to have documents with them at all times.

Time will tell whether the law will be effective in curbing illegal activities or lead to untoward harassment of aliens or some ethnic groups.

Currently, to justify various laws and policies regarding illegal immigration, the nation needs to examine the problem and gather reliable statistics. At the moment, the US has a dire need of illegal immigration crime statistics that can be properly interpreted so that lawmakers and policymakers can come to an understanding and perhaps even an agreement as to what exactly what needs to be done. Studies should be made and scientifically designed to shed light on the perennial problem of illegal aliens.

Problems stemming from illegal immigration into the United States are not going away on their own. Take a look at the statistics at http://www.illegalimmigrationstatistics.org and tell us what you think we should do about illegal immigration.

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Posted Originally at CrimLaw - http://crimlaw.blogspot.com

Identity Theft is a vast and rapidly growing crime in the U.S. It has been ranked the #1 offense against local and federal law. The size of population is a factor when it comes to statistics of which states are more affected by identity theft, but this plays no part when it comes to states that are among the U.S and Mexico’s border and also Canada. ID theft has been increasing rapidly among families in the states that fall on the border due to the advancing amount of illegal immigration. This puts a lot of our families at risk, including our children. With out properly knowing how these thieves are getting our personal information, we are defenseless against their attacks.

Facts On Identity Theft

As technology increases, and drug wars on the border continue to escalate, Americans are more susceptible to this type of crime, allowing different doorways for thieves to steal our personal information. According to the FTC, ID Theft affects more than 10 million people each year, jumping from 500,000 in 2001 to a whopping 1900% increase in 2010. These crooks aim for one valuable piece of information that’s key to destroying everything else that lies ahead, your social security number.

Why Is The Amount of Victims Increasing Among Border States

I was not able to get a precise statistic in increase of identity theft in border states due to illegal immigration, because government agencies state they have not implemented this type of research for this category as of yet. However, with some research we were able to find that MSNBC reported, according to Betsy Broder an assistant director with the FTC, the agency had seen a rise in prosecution of workers using other people’s information to be employed, particularly for using fraudulent Social Security numbers.

With the increase in drug wars amongst the border cities of Mexico, many immigrants have fled for their lives to the United States. Some are here legally and many are here illegally. Let’s not forget that Canada also plays their part in illegal immigration. Despite the matter, most illegal immigrants don’t acquire our personal information by stealing it, they buy it. As profound as it may seem, the source of identity theft starts in our own backyard. On the other hand, with the increase of illegal immigration, the more the demand for falsified documents, the more the demand for the crime to be committed.

Which Border States Are Experiencing This Crime

The top six states that rank amongst identity theft happening among border states is 1.Arizona, 2.California, 3.Texas, 4.New York, 5.Washington, and 6.New Mexico. Arizona ranks #1 in identity theft all across the nation, in 3rd is California, and in 4th is Texas. It is not only due to the size of the state because as you can see Arizona is a whole lot smaller than both California and Texas, and Nevada ranks 2nd in the nation which is also smaller in population.

In Conclusion…

The Federal Trade Commission stated that the number one thing that everyone should do to protect themselves is to become AWARE. Get yourself up-to-date on ways identity thieves can steal your information, ways on how to prevent this crime from happening to you and your family. Yo need to know what these thieves are doing with your personal information when they do have it. We all need to be aware and to recognize just how serious this crime is destroying lives because once the damage is done, it’s never done. There are ways to begin minimizing the threat of Identity Theft, we you just have to be willing to get you and your family informed.

Julius C. Rocha is a professional identity theft resource advisor, and has assisted many families across America with problems of identity theft, to learn more about Julius, see Helping Others Today

To Learn more on how to prevent Identity Theft from happening to you and your family, check out Safety For Your Identity

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We all know that 14 states in the United States as well as countries such as Canada, Austria, the Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Finland, Israel, and Italy have legalized the use of medicinal marijuana. Just last November 2010, a law legalizing the use and possession of marijuana in Arizona solely for medical purposes have been passed making it the fifteenth state to do so.

Just like the other 14 states, patients must apply for a medical marijuana identification card. To do this he or she must be a “qualified patient” meaning that he or she should have a chronic or debilitating disease. Patients must acquire a written recommendation from a doctor, homeopaths, osteopaths, or naturopaths specializing and licensed to recommend medical marijuana treatment. This doctor should also provide a written documentation about the said recommendation, his reasons to give such, and his signature affixed. Once they have the two documents, they can apply for a card. However, not all consultations end up in medical marijuana recommendation.

However, laws covering medical marijuana in Arizona still need further amendment as there are overlapping laws regarding the legality of the drug particularly in cases of driving under the influence of marijuana. Medicinal marijuana card holders may still violate the law notwithstanding legality. This is just one of the ambivalence that law-makers in Arizona should clarify. Moreover, if you reside in Arizona and plan to drive without repercussion even with a card, you should at least hire an accident lawyer.

As for medical marijuana dispensaries, they should be registered as non-profit. They must have documents that prove their legal operation. They should distribute medicinal marijuana solely to qualified patients who have a valid card as well as to their eligible primary caregivers. Acquiring, cultivating, processing, manufacturing, or delivering them for other purposes makes them answerable to the law.

Find out more information about medical marijuana and how you can benefit from it.

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On April 29th, 2011, AZ SB 1200 was signed into law by Governor Jan Brewer and is to go in effect on December 31, 2011. The bill approved by the Arizona Legislature will end the automatic right to a jury trial for first-time DUI offenses. As the law currently stands, first time DUI defendants have a right to a jury trial, however, under the new provisions it would be up to the judge’s discretion for whether or not to grant a jury trial.

This new law only applies to first-time DUI offenses. Repeat offenders would still have the right to a jury trial. The bill does, however, offer an alternative to first-time offenders. Their case can be heard in front of a judge, who can ultimately decide whether or not the DUI suspect was guilty.

This change only reflects one aspect of the bill, which covers many other changes to current DUI laws. For example, an important change is the length of time in which first time DUI defendants are required to install an ignition interlock device inside their vehicles. Prior to the change, first time non-extreme offenders had to install an ignition interlock device for twelve months. With the new law, that length of time will now be reduced to six months instead.

The purpose of reducing the ignition interlock time requirement for first time DUI defendants was to help Arizona families who were struggling with the hassle of an ignition interlock device. Shortening the duration of the installation requirement relieved the financial burden of having to keep up the monthly fees, as well as the time it takes to get the device calibrated and reset.

The change to the right to a jury trial happens to be the particular aspect of the bill which has been met with opposition from some citizens and lawyers alike. Supporters of the amendment claim that the change was made in an effort to reduce the state’s cost for expensive jury trials for lesser DUI charges. Those individuals who have trouble with the amendment argue that revoking a defendant’s statutory right to a jury trial is unjust. Especially considering the fact that repeat offenders still enjoy the benefit of having their rights preserved.

Counties within Arizona will in fact save money because there is not jury trial requirement; however, many lawyers have stated that they will challenge the provision on constitutional grounds. Many stand firm on the fact that criminal defendants are supposed to have a right to a fair and speedy trial and they are supposed to have their case heard by a jury of their peers. If you or someone you love has been arrested for DUI in Arizona, where the SB 1200 will be going into effect, you should seek the advice of an experienced DUI defense lawyer who is abreast of the new laws and how they might affect you.

The Wallin Law Group is a DUI defense firm serving the residents of Phoenix and the surrounding communities. Their firm specializes in DUI defense law, which means that they have the experience and qualifications necessary to provide you with a strong defense. Their firm has successfully helped their clients obtain sentence reductions and they have helped get their charges dropped altogether. When you are facing criminal and administrative sanctions, you can’t afford to hire an attorney who doesn’t specialize in DUI defense law. If you choose to hire an attorney from their firm, you can rest assured that your case will be handled by heavyweights who know the best strategies for your defense. Contact a Phoenix DUI defense lawyer from their firm today at (888) 612-3943 or by visiting the firm’s website at http://www.phoenixazduidefenselaw.com.

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There are a couple of scams going on right now that I want to talk about because there are a couple of things that happened just recently that harkened me back to when I first got started in real estate here in Arizona in the late 1980s.

There were so many scams going on then, I mean we had just tons of vacant houses we were selling, and one of the big scams that I thought was actually being perpetrated on a friend of mine the other day is a little something known as rent skimming.

What rent skimming is when a “shark” as I like to call them will go out and find a vacant house, and they will go in and change the locks and maybe clean it up a little if need be, but then they will rent it out to somebody. They will move that person into the house. They will get their $1,000 or $1,500 a month rent payment on the house, and 3 or 4 months down the road the repo man comes knocking on the door and says, ‘hey you have to get out’.

He says this to the tenant of course and the tenant says, ‘hey you don’t own the house’, and it turns out that the guy that they were paying rent from for the last 3 or 4 months didn’t own the house either.

So you are talking about somebody, a ‘shark’, who goes out and finds a vacant house, breaks in, changes the locks, cleans it up, puts it up on Craig’s list and rent’s it out and collects the money. He never owned the house, he never had any rights to the house, then all of a sudden the sheriff shows up and says you have to go.

How can that be legal? Well it’s not legal; it’s not legal at all. Because the person who rented you the house knows that they don’t own the house, now of course the tenant doesn’t know that.

Now under Fannie Mae’s new guidelines, that tenant, if they are lucky enough to have Fannie Mae own that property, or own that note, you may actually get to stay in the house because Fannie Mae has some new guidelines that if they have a tenant in the house, they will re-sign a contract with them and let them stay in the house. It didn’t say how long but they will let them stay in there for a while.

So Fannie Mae is getting into the property management business. Yes, our government is now becoming a landlord as well as the entity that likes to just hand out trillions of dollars. I actually think that that is the right thing for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to do, primarily because if they sell right now they will sell at a huge loss and they have an opportunity to pick up some capitol at some point, don’t you think?

It all depends on whether property values keep going up or property values keep going down. But the real issue becomes, is our government in the business of owning real estate?

What is the crime, I mean realistically, some guy goes in, breaks into the house. Sounds like its breaking and entering to me, then he is collecting monies on a vacant house. I do know in Arizona there is a statute specifically about this very practice.

This next crime just happened to a friend of mine where her daughter moved out of a house that she had been living in for years and she moved to another state and the house went vacant. Well, she hadn’t been gone for more than a few weeks and the mother, who was going to help her work on a short sale, went over to the house one day and found that the locks were changed.

And I immediately think, Oh, Oh we’re dealing with a rent skimming situation here. Well it turns out the lender, who does not own the house yet, because there has not been a foreclosure sale, came by, saw the house was vacant, opened the door, changed all the locks on the house and now essentially is not willing to give the keys to the owner. Two weeks later they still had not gotten the keys from the lender.

A buddy of mine works repos over in California and I think its happening here a little bit, where what will happen is when you are in a foreclosure situation you will have all kinds of people knocking on your door. Some of these people want to come by and buy the stuff out of your house.

Now there is certain stuff you can sell. Anything in my mind that is not physically attached to the property you can sell. Stuff like a washer, a dryer, and a refrigerator, you can sell that stuff. But you are really not supposed to rip the cabinets off the wall, or rip the pipes out of the wall, and sell it to somebody who is coming by knocking on your door offering you $1,500 for everything in the house. That is what is going on in a lot of cases in California; in fact they are completely trashing houses.

Now the other thing you have to look out for is you are obligated under your deed of trust to not destroy the property when you leave. So I am just putting that out there, just be really careful when these people come by and offer you some money and you are hurting for it, just be really careful because you don’t want to trash the house before you leave.

They can come after you, maybe they will, and maybe they won’t. But that does not matter, you are committing a crime; you just should not do it. And the other thing if you think you are maybe involved with a rent skimming scheme you can go to your County’s website and see who actually owns the property. And again if you think that you are having trouble you obviously want to call the Attorney General’s office and talk to them about it if you think that in anyway that the person you are writing that rent check to doesn’t own the property.

Dan Havey of Velocity Financial is an are expert on all aspects of today’s volatile Real Estate Market. Topics covered include the Mortgage and Real Estate Industries as well as Foreclosures, Short Sales, First Time Home Buyers and the Tax Implications of all aspects of owning and selling Real Estate. For more information join us at our YouTube Channel: http://youtube.com/user/REMarketingThisWeek or on our blog http://RealEstateMarketingThisWeek.com.

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