Washington Domestic Violence Law

Washington Domestic Violence Law

Domestic Violence Charges in Washington

A charge of domestic violence can initiate not one, but a series of criminal prosecutions, setting actions in motion that can have very serious, long-term consequences. Washington state law provides for vigorous prosecution of anyone charged with the crime of domestic violence (DV). It is, in fact, one of the most zealously prosecuted crimes in the state. As in many criminal prosecutions, competent legal counsel is critical to assure that the person charged is provided an effective and timely defense that will generate the most successful resolution possible.

Washington state law defines DV as any crime committed against a family member, someone living in the same household, or against someone with whom you have or have had a dating relationship. While the majority of domestic violence cases involve couples who are in or have been in an intimate relationship, the scope of the law is not limited to that scenario. It can also apply to parent-child relationships, sibling relationships and various other established associations or domestic affiliations as defined in RCW 26.50.010 and RCW 10.99.020.

Washington state law, specifically RCW 26.50 and RCW 10.99, deals with domestic relations and defines the applicable relationships as well as the behavior considered to be in violation under the law. Harassment, intimidation, threatening, bodily injury or harm, physical or sexual assault, and stalking are just a few of the listed violations. Misdemeanor or felony charges can be filed as a result of any of these actions based on the circumstances and severity of the crime.

Once an arrest for DV has been made, the court will schedule an arraignment proceeding where formal charges will be filed by the prosecution and the defendant will be required to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty. Upon accepting the plea and assuming a not-guilty plea was entered, the judge will determine the conditions of release. Conditions could include participation in a treatment program, electronic home monitoring, or adherence to a no-contact order. The judge may issue a no-contact order at this time if there is not one already in place. A date is set for the pretrial hearing and the defendant may be released based on the judge’s conditions. If, on the other hand, a guilty plea is entered, the defendant may be remanded into custody until sentencing.

No-contact orders are issued by the court for the protection of the victim in a DV case. Adherence to the court order is absolutely essential, whether the victim deems it warranted or not. For example, when law enforcement responds to a DV incident and an arrest is made for criminal conduct, the court will determine whether a protection order is warranted. That order must be honored by both parties or a subsequent arrest and prosecution will be initiated for violation. The victim does not have the authority to reverse a no-contact order and must abide by the judge’s order or incur additional criminal prosecution.

At the pretrial hearing, the parties will review the charges and any progress in the case to determine its readiness for trial. At this point, the prosecution and defense have the opportunity to amend the charges or the plea, and the case will either be resolved or will proceed to trial. Motion hearings may be set before trial to hear various issues and then, barring settlement or pleading out to a lesser charge, the case will proceed to trial. At trial evidence will be submitted by both parties, and the judge or a jury will enter its judgment accordingly, either for conviction or acquittal.

The laws of the State of Washington are enacted to protect the victims of domestic violence. The court system works in concert with the district attorney to prosecute offenders to the full extent of the law and protect the victim. If you have been arrested for domestic violence, your first response must be to seek qualified legal counsel who can prepare an appropriate response to the charges filed against you. Procedural and legal responses will need to be presented to support your case and these require the experience and expertise of a professional with years of familiarity with the law. A criminal conviction is a lifelong issue and affect everything from your right to vote and be in possession of a firearm to your future freedom and the ability to work at the job of your choice. It is critical to consult an experienced Washington attorney if you face domestic violence charges. For more information about the legal implications of domestic violence charges, visit …

Reckless Endangerment of a Child

Reckless Endangerment of a Child

Most people are aware that when they become a parent or guardian of a child, they have specific responsibilities to the dependents in their care. Most often, the parent must assume the role of teacher, provider, and protector of his or her children, and should always act with the safety of the children in mind. If a parent behaves in a negligent or reckless manner around the dependents, he or she may face criminal reckless endangerment charges.

Many parents understand their responsibilities and make sure that their actions are always in the best interest of the child. This involves participating in safe activities, operating their cars and other vehicles with care, and making sure that the children are supervised at all times. By taking the natural steps to care and supervise their children, parents can make sure that the dependents are safe from harm.

Reckless endangerment charges may be filed against guardians who fail to observe laws and regulations when the children are present. Potential causes for reckless endangerment charges may include:

Engaging in illegal activity when the children are present

Driving in a dangerous manner

Leaving the children unattended for a long period of time

Failure to supervise children and allowing serious injury to occur

Using illegal drugs while children are present

Driving while intoxicated with children in the vehicle

Leaving loaded weapons in the presence of minors

Although most people understand that dangerous actions and behavior that put children at risk will carry legal consequences, some do not understand how large a responsibility having children really is. Parents cannot leave their children unattended in vehicles while they run errands, nor should they engage in activity that is dangerous or illegal if they have children present. Such rules should be common sense to most people, but cases often arise showing that some individuals do not understand their role as parents or guardians.

Unfortunately, people may be unfairly accused of reckless endangerment. In some spousal disputes, one individual may attempt to cast aspersions on the other person’s character by alleging reckless endangerment. In other cases, the situation may be very vague or may not necessarily fit the criminal charge placed on the person responsible. In any event, if a person is charged with reckless endangerment, he or she has the right to defend themselves in a court of law.

If you would like to know more about reckless endangerment and criminal defense, visit the website of the Austin criminal defense attorneys of Ian Inglis.…

What are your rights as a grandparent according to Child custody attorneys Fort Worth TX

While divorce separates two couples and breaks down a family, other ties hold them together. The parents can always share custody or adhere to other setups agreed to in court. However, that is not always the case with other family members.

Grandparents cannot forget their grandkids whatsoever. In most cases, grandparents want to spend time with their grandkids. More so when they want to help the child. Here is a breakdown of your rights as a grandparent from child custody attorneys Fort Worth TX.

Grandparent’s visitation rights

The Texas law does not prevent the grandparents a chance to visit their grandchildren. However, parents are far more important than the grandparents. A grandparent can still claim their right through legal means. You must first serve both parents or anyone with custody a petition file for visitation rights. The case goes to mediation. If the mediation does not work, the mediator will present the case in court.

A judge presumes that one of the parents does not want the grandparent around the child. However, the grandparents can prove otherwise in court.

The court considers the many reasons to allow the grandparent to see their grandchild. If the parent is proven to be one of the following;

• Is incompetent of handling the child’s needs
• has been in jail or incarcerated for over three months
• Dies
• Does not have any ordered visitation with the court

A lawyer, can help you make a strong case. The judge will consider the matter and make a ruling. If the child is 14 and older, they get a chance to voice their opinion. If you have an existing relationship with the child, the court will likely rule in your favor.

When the parents pass on, the judge can grant visitation rights to the grandparents and any other relatives known to the child, particularly siblings and parents. The court first will consider a pre-existing relationship with the family.

In case of an adoption

A grandparent can only claim visitation rights under one circumstance. If a stepparent adopts the child, then they can claim visitation rights. However, if a stranger adopts the child, the grandparents cannot access the child.

If you want custody of your grandchild, you must prove that the parent is unfit and the current environment is harmful to the child. Otherwise, the court rarely grants grandparents child custody.

If you have any pending questions, book an appointment with child custody attorneys Fort Worth TX. We will give you all the advice you need and help you take the necessary steps.

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Sale or Contingency: Is There a ‘Best Way’ to Collect Judgments?

Judgments are regularly filed against debtors across the country. Courts enter the judgments on behalf of creditors seeking to get paid what they are legally owed. All too often, those judgments go unpaid. So much so that some 80% of all judgment creditors never see a dime.

More often than not, judgments go uncollected because creditors either don’t know how to enforce judgments or they lack the resources to do so. This is where judgment collection agencies come in. A firm like Salt Lake City’s Judgment Collectors steps in and takes over.

There are two methods by which a creditor can utilize the services of a judgment collection firm. The first is to outright sell their unpaid judgments to the firm. The other is to place the judgments with the firm on a contingency basis. Knowing these two options, is there a best way to collect unpaid judgments? No. It is a matter of preference.

1. Selling Judgments to an Agency

Choosing to sell unpaid judgments to collectors immediately alleviates creditors from having to deal with said judgments any longer. Any and all collection efforts immediately cease. Creditors spend no more time or money chasing down debtors. It is fast, clean, and simple. Yet it does come at a cost. That cost is related to how collection agencies get paid.

A judgment collection agency is a business just like any other. It has to cover its own expenses and generate some profit. To do that, firms generally charge a percentage of the value of the judgment at hand. For example, the Acme widget company might decide to sell a $10,000 judgment to a collection agency. The agency researches the judgment, estimates its own costs and the likelihood of recovery, and comes back with a $6,000 offer.

The creditor now must decide whether $6,000 is an acceptable price or not. If so, the judgment is sold, and the deal is done. Such transactions are possible because the law recognizes civil judgments as legal assets similar to securities. They can be bought and sold as needed.

If the creditor decides the offered price is too low, one of two options exist. Either the creditor can walk away and take the judgment to a new agency or attempt to negotiate a higher price. In either case, the creditor is not going to get full value for that judgment. There is no way it can and still allow the collection agency to make money.

2. Placing Judgments on Contingency

Creditors do not have to sell their judgments if they don’t want to. Instead, they can place them with collection agencies on a contingency basis. It works a lot like personal injury attorneys who work on contingency. An agency takes a case with the understanding that they will only get paid if they succeed in collecting.

If there is any advantage to this strategy it is the fact that creditors stand a chance of realizing a larger sum from collection. How so? The contingency model motivates the collection agency to do everything within its power to collect as much money as possible. By agreeing to receive a certain percentage of what is eventually collected, the creditor stands to receive more than would have otherwise been received had they sold the judgment instead.

Judgment creditors choosing to turn to collection agencies can either sell their judgments or place them on a contingency basis. Neither choice is necessarily better than the other. It is really a matter of preference, based on individual needs and circumstances. Every case has to be looked at according to its own merits.…

Florida DUI Penalties & Procedures

Florida DUI Penalties & Procedures

The social implications of drinking and driving are not to be taken lightly, this explains why the legal penalties for someone caught driving while intoxicated are severe. In Florida, penalties for DUI (driving under the influence) are different based on whether the offense was committed for the first time, the amount of alcohol found in the blood, and the driver’s willingness to cooperate with the police.

Suspension Of Your License

If you refuse to take an alcohol test, whether it is a breathalyzer, blood, or urine test, the Department of Highway Motor Vehicles (DMV) may impose upon you a suspension of your license for a certain period of time. For a driver who refuses to take the test for the first time, the DMV may suspend his license for six months, while a driver who refuses for the second time and the succeeding instances is deferred of his license for as long as 18 months. If your license has been suspended for the first time because of a refusal to take the test, you can apply for a hardship license or a business purposes license, which expires after 42 days, after 90 days of hard (no driving) suspension. It is during this period that your DUI attorney can gather all evidence to prove that the police lacked probable cause to arrest you for DUI.

If you have taken one of the alcohol tests and your blood alcohol content is more than 0.08, the DMV will suspend your driving license immediately after 10 days during your arrest. This applies to all drunk driving offenders, whether it is their first time to be arrested for DUI or not. License suspension lasts for up to six months. After 30 days or approximately one month of hard suspension, where the driver is prohibited from driving, you can apply for a hardship license or business purposes license to plead the DMV to allow you to drive for business purposes for up to 42 days, provided you show proof that you have attended DUI school during the period of hard suspension.

Alcohol Rehabilitation

Apart from administrative suspensions imposed by the DMV, a person who is convicted of DUI also suffers from statutory penalties that are enforced by the court. A first conviction leads to imprisonment of not more than six months. Imprisonment is not commonly spent in jail, but in an alcohol rehabilitation center or drug abuse treatment facility. A fine of $500 to $1,000 is also levied and a license revocation (separate from the administrative suspension that begins 10 days after the arrest) of six months to one year. If the vehicle is a commercial motor vehicle (CMV) and the driver was tested to have a blood-alcohol-concentration of 0.04, he is disqualified from driving a CMV for one year. Persons convicted of DUI are also required to serve a mandatory 50 hours of community service or pay $10 for each hour of community service. Probation of up to one year is also necessary. For persons who are tested to have BAC of 0.15 or higher and those who committed DUI with a minor inside the vehicle, enhanced penalties are executed.

Second convictions are, understandably, more severely penalized the first convictions. The court requires a person convicted with a second DUI to pay a fine of not less than $1,000 and not more than $2,000. The court may also oblige the convict to serve not more than nine months in an alcohol rehabilitation center or a drug abuse treatment facility. If the second DUI is committed within five years after the first conviction, jail time of not less than 10 days is mandatory, 48 hours of which should be served consecutively. The court also has the power to revoke the offender’s license for a minimum of five years, provided the second conviction took place within five years after the first conviction. A hardship license or business purposes may be given after one year of serving the revocation.

Jail Time

Florida law imposes more severe penalties for persons who have been convicted for the third time. Imprisonment, which is equivalent to time spent in an alcohol rehabilitation center or a drug abuse treatment facility, is up to 12 months. Up to 30 days of mandatory jail time is also required, with 48 consecutive hours in jail mandatory. If the third conviction took place 10 years after the second conviction, a fine of not less than $2,000 or more than $4,000 is levied. License revocation may take up to 10 years and the offender may only start applying for a hardship license or business purposes license two years after serving the suspension.

Ignition Interlock Device

The court has the power to order the installation of an ignition interlock device into the offender’s vehicle …

Criminal Law and Public Defenders – Is There Equal Justice?

Criminal Law and Public Defenders – Is There Equal Justice?

Not long, ago, someone had contacted me who happened to get into a little trouble in a small town. It was a relatively minor incident, and yet, she felt as if the system was very unjust. She couldn’t afford an attorney, it was just too darned expensive for her. She stated to me that when she said she was going to get a lawyer and come back in 2-weeks, she had no idea it would cost so much.

When she came back to court without a lawyer, she said she was assigned a public defender. The public defender mixed up her case, probably due to being over worked; “The Judge was furious and fired him from the case, She made it law that from now on any one who cannot afford an attorney is allowed only $150 – worth of free council This don’t buy Jack #$%.”

Well, judging by her comments the judge wasn’t the only one who was furious, and her comments on the $150 towards a private attorney are laughable and an understatement. She also stated that the DA is further investigating her and her family, and causing problems with the relationship she has with her neighbors in the community. She told me that;

“The prosecuting attorney actually walks the streets asking who ever if they know anything about so and so.” In her community, there are no secrets, and she said even rumors can get someone in trouble with the law.

The moral of the story here and I suppose her main point is the challenge in America with unequal justice, it’s a real problem. We have different standards, and poor folks are not as likely to get off as easy as wealthy clients who can hire the best representation (lawyers). Everyone knows that’s true, but we still believe our Justice System in the US is the best, and we work to try to make it fair for all, even if it fails us occasionally as a society.

What I’ve found along the way is that those who can afford to pay the expensive lawyers, they get by with things, and those without can’t. We have unequal justice in the US, and I think everyone knows that, there are a different set of rules for rich and poor, all under the cloak of equal justice for all. As long as we don’t try to hide this reality or the debris under the carpet we have a fighting chance of making things right, if not, we will continue to live in hypocrisy, and that’s unfortunate.

Please consider all this – our topic of the day.…

The Best Way to Find a Criminal Attorney for Your Case

The Best Way to Find a Criminal Attorney for Your Case

If you have been arrested, or think you are going to be, you will need a criminal defense attorney to protect your rights by following through the legal steps involved to win your case. It is in your best interest to remain silent and do nothing to further incriminate yourself by exercising your Miranda rights.

Your attorney will meet with you to discuss in detail everything you know about your involvement. During this time you should be totally honest with him and don’t hold back any details because they could be more important than you think. Let your lawyer decide what is and isn’t important to your case. They will know and meet all deadlines for submitting evidence and paperwork, and make sure you understand any actions taken by the court, or other attorneys, so you know what to expect.

There will be an initial hearing where you will be formally charged with the crime, and advised of your rights as a defendant. A “Not Guilty” plea will be entered to give your attorney more time to gather what is needed to properly build your defense. At a later date, there will be a process of discovery where your attorney will make a formal request from the prosecution to produce copies of the evidence against you. This should include a list of witnesses, police reports and statements from any victims that were involved.

During this period your lawyer has time to collect any additional evidence that can prove your innocence. A court reporter will record statements which are called Depositions. Anyone giving a deposition is sworn under oath to be telling the truth, and could be used later in court during your trial.

The defense is allowed to conduct their own investigation in an effort to find additional evidence for your own experts which could prove that you are innocent. Finding additional witnesses, possibly taking more pictures and interviewing any other persons who may have information can help to explain your side of the story.

During pretrial motions the evidence that has been collected will be argued to decide what factors are admissible in court. Some of the evidence may be suppressed if not gathered through the proper procedures, or is otherwise in question. Pretrial is where your attorney makes sure you are protected for your Constitutional rights, and are treated to a fair trial. When evidence is suppressed, it can not be used against you.

At each step in the representation, your attorney will keep you informed of the any developments in handling your case and ensure that you understand what is going on and how it can affect you. If a plea negotiation is in your best interest, he will advise you of what is in your best interest for you to agree. He will work closely with experts, authorities and investigators to make sure all facts are correct and that everything is complete.

A criminal defense attorney is there to represent you during your interrogation, as well as navigate your case through the legal system. If you should be incarcerated, he will work diligently to get you an appeal. It is not unusual for an attorney to work for several years in bring a satisfactory conclusion to your case.…