Most people equate criminal defense attorneys with big crimes, high-profile cases, or sensational courtroom battles on TV. However, criminal law encompasses more than these popular cliches. A lot of ordinary situations can become criminal charges at a moment’s notice, catching people off guard and requiring a lawyer when they are not ready. Awareness prevents small annoyances from becoming drastic life-altering events.
Workplace Accidents That Are Against the Law
Workplace issues, mistakes, and disputes can appear to be ordinary human resource problems, but they can develop into criminal offenses that require immediate legal advice. Consider issues like workplace harassment, theft of company property, or abuse of company technology. An employee case involves the police when employers obtain evidence of a crime. Employees facing allegations of theft or embezzlement, computer crime, or sexual harassment usually lose their job opportunity and may be charged with an offense in a criminal case.
In this situation, professionals like Portland criminal defense lawyers specializing in criminal defense and employment law can prove to be very useful. Not only do they help defend an individual to preserve their employment opportunity, but they also ensure they don’t have to face jail time for those allegations.
Social Media Posts That Become Legal Evidence
Law enforcement is always monitoring social media sites, searching for evidence for ongoing cases or new crimes in posts and activity. Individuals have no idea how prosecutors are going to use their online posts, so innocent posts often become proof of one’s intent, being present at crime scenes, or committing a crime.
Interestingly, private messages and deleted posts can also be retrieved by legal means, so anything uploaded to the internet is never private. People believe that removing incriminating entries will erase proof, but this tactic typically returns to haunt them in grand style. Post-deletion can be viewed by courts as awareness of guilt or tampering with evidence, thus creating further legal problems.
Remember, social media sites store data belonging to users even after deletion, and hence recovery is always on the cards. This fact implies that individuals who might be under any possible legal investigation should immediately stop using social media and seek advice from legal professionals on how to guard their online persona.
Self-Defense Scenarios Turned Bad
The law mandates that self-defense must be necessary, immediate, and proportional to the perceived threat. Such conditions open loopholes that lead to criminal charges even when people truly thought that they were defending themselves or others. Altercations in bars, domestic disputes, road rage, or neighborhood conflicts can easily spiral out of control and lead to assault or battery charges.
Most people learn too late that their state’s laws of self-defense contain certain provisions of which they are unaware. Some states have a “duty to retreat”, which means you must first try to retreat from threatening encounters before using force if it’s safely possible to do so. Some states have “stand your ground” statutes, where you may use force without retreat. It’s best to familiarize yourself with your local laws and call a professional immediately after an accident, even if you believe it wasn’t that bad.
Endnote
The complexity of contemporary legal systems guarantees that the situations that look simple to common citizens oftentimes represent complicated legal concepts that can only be handled successfully by experts. The skill to identify these warning signs and how to hire the services of an attorney can keep common situations from becoming life-altering court cases.
