Petty Theft at Kmart

[LawResearcherMissy]

Figure at least twice that.

[claurice]

Wow. I'm going to need a payment plan.

Do you have any other general advice for when I walk in there?

[LawResearcherMissy]

Dress nicely - think office wear. Address the judge as Your Honor. Address the bailiffs, attorneys, and other court personnel as Sir or Ma'am. Put on your best manners.

Read this.

[claurice]

My last question is,

Should I bother to get an outside lawyer, or will the public defendant be good enough to get me the Diversion Program? I looked it up and my court offers this. I figure petty theft is somewhat common and my case is simple, and I assume public defendants are familiar with this. Is there any clear benefit to paying much more for a lawyer than just using the public defendant?

Thanks to all who helped in my thread.

[PandorasBox]

If you can afford a private attorney, do so.

The difference between a private lawyer and a public defender is that the private lawyer will have more time to dedicate to your case.

[claurice]

I understand that. I guess "get a lawyer" is just the general response to threads no matter what the circumstances are.

What I'm asking is, due to the simplicity of my case, do I really stand to gain anything for having a private lawyer since my case is run of the mill?

[PandorasBox]

Yes.

A private lawyer and PD both are familiar with the prosecutor and judge in your case.

The private lawyer has more time to dedicate to your case.

Your case....YOU may think is simple. Right now, as a first time offender, your goal is to explore options like First Time Offender programs, Adjudication Withheld....a PD is not going to have the same amount of time to dedicate to your case.

And you want the best outcome possible. Having a crime of theft or moral purpitude on your record is not as "simple" as that - it can affect the rest of your life. Job options. Even getting an apartment for a certain number of years. Your case is not simple...it is serious....

You think may think of serious as "murder"....but theft is taken pretty seriously.

[claurice]

I meant simple as in not convoluted or difficult to understand, not simple as in having no rammifications.

Surely the public defendant will be well-versed in petty theft and knows about these programs?

[PandorasBox]

Again, a PD does not have as much time to dedicate to your case. They have a bigger case load than a private attorney will have.

Your case is not difficult to understand....it is just more serious than you think, and with bigger legal ramifications than you think.

[claurice]

Update:

I went to court today. I had gotten a free consultation with a lawyer awhile back so I knew what to expect. I would definitely recommend this to anyone with at least a misdemeanor to see how things are done in one's particular city, what programs are available, and how similar cases to yours have been ruled in the past. I'd like to dispel a lot of the BS that's been said in this thread.

So the judge called me up eventually (after about 4 hours of waiting, as all the criminals with lawyers got cuts in line to everyone else waiting in the court room), with a couple other people who were also being charged with petty theft. The judge doesn't ask or give a shit about what you stole, where from, why you did it, but just wants to give you a sentence; this is obvious as he called up all the people being charged with the same or similar offenses at the same time. It'd be crazy to bring a lawyer to this, or even bother with a public defender. Like I mentioned earlier, this is a relatively simple and common crime, and the prosecution has undoubtedly seen it a hundred times (and while the severity of it I don't doubt, by simple I mean not complicated, to the person who has no reading comprehension above). As a side note, the lawyer I talked to wanted $500 to show up for me the first day, and I'd presume an additional $500 when I completed my punishment.

So the judge immediately turned to the prosecution for a deal, and they offered the diversion program in my city: Theft Awareness Program. It costs $300 and involves but 12 hours of participation. When I complete it, I am to return to court, and my charges will for all intents and pursposes disappear from my record. I believe it gets reduced to an infraction, which is about as serious as a traffic violation, and I don't even have to release it during any job interview, and it will not come up in any background check. I know this because the lawyer told me. So I filled out my paperwork and returned to my university for a nice day of class with the worry of this off my shoulders.

To those who are in a similar situation, you're going to be better off seeking a free consultation before you even stress yourself out enough to think about having to hire a lawyer, especially something like petty theft, which I see so often on this forum. It didn't matter at all that the lawyer would have more time to dedicate to my case. In retrospect, even choosing between a public defender and lawyer is ridiculous for petty theft, unless you were trying to prove your innocence I imagine, and rereading this thread is almost laughable. Just hope your city offers a program as good as mine does.