What Can I Do To Help My Case?

Having practiced law for over 25 years, Matthew has learned a thing or two about dealing with Judges and prosecutors.  Matt puts that experience to work in every case he handles.

There is usually a long period of time between the arrest and the Court date in any criminal case. During this period of time the attorney will be requesting official police reports, test results, and copies of any and all records pertinent to the case. There are things that a client can do to help the case. Here are some examples:

1. Be sure to document any potential witnesses that may help in the defense of the case.  Memorialize the important facts or things you believe will help defend or at least mitigate the offense.  Understand that the other side will have prepared a report of the details of the event so you should also write down your version of the incident while it is fresh in your mind.  At the very least prepare a brief statement of the case that summarizes the facts and circumstances of the arrest and what led up to your contact with the police.

2. You may want to get a couple of character reference letters together. These may be old letters you already have or new ones if you want to take the time, the choice is yours. In some cases, having a couple of good character reference letters could make a big difference, in other cases it may make little difference, but it never hurts to have these letters available. For more information about this you can read how to write a character reference letter on this site.

3.  Prepare a short biography of yourself so the attorney can have that in the file in order to speak intelligently about the client when he meets with the district attorney or prosecutor.  For more information on this visit the page: How to prepare a social history on this site.

4.   Be sure to let the attorney know if you received any correspondence relating to the case.

5.  Let Matthew know of any change of address, phone number or email address you may encounter.

It is important to understand that most cases take time to resolve but rest assured the attorney is doing everything he can to protect your rights and build the best defense in the case, feel free to call Mr. Ruff if you have any questions.