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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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. […]
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’, […]