California’s Bail System
There is growing concern in California that its bail system is unjust and many in the legal community are calling for reform. The average bail amount in California is five times that of the national median amount. This gross disparity has many in the legal community concerned that the current bail system results in undue monetary punishment and unjust guilty pleas.
The problem with having a bail amount in California that is more than five times the national average is twofold. First, high bail amounts create great pressure for even innocent people to plead guilty just so that they can …
Expungement Lawyer: When Do You Need to Disclose Expunged Records?
Expungement offers a great opportunity for people with criminal convictions to start over with their lives. Through expungement, your past criminal records will be cleaned up, and the case legally dismissed. This gives you the chance to find gainful employment without the fear of being rejected or criticized due to any past record.
Technically speaking, companies are not allowed to discriminate against convicted persons when choosing candidates for a job, as doing so is a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. It is, however, common practice for many companies to perform background checks, and a past record …
Reducing a Felony Conviction to a Misdemeanor Does Not Happen Automically – Proposition 47
In November of 2014 Proposition 47 passed giving certain low-level, nonviolent felony convictions the opportunity to be reduced to misdemeanors on old criminal records. The law itself reclassified several categories of theft and drug possession crimes from felonies or “wobblers” (crimes that can be charged as either a felony or misdemeanor) to straight misdemeanors. Prop 47 is a benefit to those who are facing charges, those with pending charges and those who are currently serving a sentence. Fortunately, it will also benefit those who already completed their sentences but would like to clean up their record.
There was a question …
You have the right to remain silent: fact or fiction?
We all know from watching TV that you have the right to remain silent when arrested. But is that true? Can you simply refuse to say anything or do you have to say some kind of “magic words?”
In 2007 while speeding, Richard Tom collided with another vehicle carrying a mother and her two children. The accident injured one child and killed the other. Following the car accident Mr. Tom refused to answer any questions when confronted by the police, before he was read his Miranda rights. Mr. Tom spoke with his attorney on the phone then told officers he …
Mass Incarceration
Over the past four decades, our country’s incarceration rate has more than quadrupled and is now the largest in world history. About one in every 31 people is either incarcerated, on probation or on parole. The Southern Law Poverty Center has stated that “this vast expansion of the corrections system-which has been called ‘The New Jim Crow’, is the direct result of a failed, decades-long war on drugs and a ‘law and order’ movement that began amid the urban unrest of the late 1960s, just after the civil rights era.”
There are vast racial disparities within our system. The system …