Facing federal charges is a shock to many people. You have specific rights in these cases, so you must ensure that they are being respected. Your criminal defense attorney can help you to find out what these are and how you can work toward them. Just be sure that you have a team you can trust on your side.
There are several stages in a federal criminal trial. You must ensure that you are ready for each one when it arrives.
Get information on the case against you
If you are sued in connection with the criminal matter, you can usually find out more information about the claims against you. When you have only a criminal case, your right to find out the evidence before the trial is limited. You also don’t have the option of being able to call much of the evidence into question prior to the trail.
Plan the strategy
Your strategy isn’t only for when you are going through a trial. At each step of the process, you have to know what you are going to do. In the pretrial stage, you need to determine how you will plead and figure out if you are going to try to work out a plea bargain. You also need to understand the options to resolve your case and find out how to handle the discovery phase and what motions you need to file.
Get ready for trial
If you aren’t going to work out a resolution prior to the trial, you must prepare to face the jury. The individuals on the panel determine your fate, so your job is to poke holes in the prosecution’s case against you. The jury is only supposed to convict you if there is no reasonable doubt that you committed the crimes that you are facing. By making them question what the prosecutors are saying, you can introduce doubt.
It takes someone familiar with the criminal justice system to work out a defense strategy that is acceptable to a jury. You can’t try to piece something together, and everything you say in your defense has to be factual. Your defense team can help you with this aspect of the case.