A criminal lawyer can help you before you are charged. Advice that you receive from a criminal defence lawyer before you are actually charged with a criminal offence is called “pre-charge advice”, and good pre-charge advice can only help you. The right pre-charge advice may be what ultimately protects you from being convicted of a criminal offence – and, in some cases, it may even protect you from being charged in the first place. The pre-charge advice you need depends on your circumstances.
As a defence lawyer, I often have people come to me for pre-charge advice in the following situations:
They know or suspect that there is an active warrant for their arrest.
Someone they know has accused them of a crime, such as sexual assault or domestic assault, but they do not yet know whether the alleged crime has been reported to the police.
Someone has reported to the police that they have committed a crime, but they have not yet been contacted by the police.
The police have contacted them, asking them to provide a statement, or to “give their side of the story”
The police have contacted them to set up an arrest by appointment.
The police have arrested them and released them without charges – for now.
They have done something that they think might be a crime, but they are not sure. Sometimes, these people did not realize at the time that they might be committing a crime.
They have done something that they think may be misunderstood as a crime, and they want to know if there is anything they can or should do.