If you are reading this, there is fair chance you or someone you care about is in trouble with the law. Well, like they say in the emergency room at the hospital, first thing you do in an emergency is to take your own pulse. I say this because you need to understand that the problem, whether it relates to a traffic ticket or a big time felony, requires a cool head, a good lawyer, and the absence of panic.
If you or a loved one has been charged with a crime in Indiana, contact our Indiana criminal defense lawyer now!
The criminal law is divided into categories of violations under a code of statutes, both state and federal. The smallest or most innocuous of them are called infractions, and they include parking tickets, simple speeding violations, and things like noisy dogs and leaky mufflers. From infractions we move to misdemeanors, of which there are three classes, and those include a wide array of charges for misconduct more serious than infractions, but less important than felonies. Misdemeanors as most people might encounter them include the more serious traffic offenses like reckless driving and first offense drunk-driving, simple assault, possession of controlled substances in small quantities where there is no implication of sale or other delivery, and certain property crimes. On this list are things like malicious mischief, vandalism, criminal conversion (where the amount of the theft is small) and the old “common nuisance” charges. Then there are felonies, crimes that require intent and that carry potential prison sentences of a year or more. What we will concentrate on here will be those areas most likely to become of importance to the average Hoosier.