When you’ve been charged with a crime, you are most likely going to need the professional assistance of a criminal justice lawyer. The first question that pops into your mind at this possibility is probably: “How much does a lawyer cost?” Unfortunately, this answer can become convoluted quickly. Many criminal cases require different legal needs, and you may end up paying more or less than another person charged with a crime. To give you an idea of what to expect, here’s an average breakdown of costs and the importance of hiring a lawyer.

Average Cost

You may expect to pay a lawyer anything between $150 to $700 per hour of work. Factors that may impact your total cost include the type of crime you’ve been charged with, the length of your case, if your case requires trial work, and the experience of your attorney. Experienced attorneys charge more than novices. The type of experience you require for your case determines a large portion of the cost.

Cost Arrangements

Criminal justice lawyers can cost so much because they work by an hourly fee. Unlike other kinds of lawyers, who may work on contingency fees or flat fees, criminal lawyers often feel that their time is best paid by the hour. You may end up paying a retainer fee initially, which covers a certain amount of time for the lawyer. After that time has been used up, an hourly fee begins to apply.

Self-Representation

Since the cost of a lawyer can be so steep, it may be tempting to represent yourself in your case to save money. This is not advised, as criminal defense can be incredibly complex and confusing. You want to make sure you have the right defense and that the charges brought against you are fair and actually reflect your crime. An attorney can help lessen penalties and reduce sentences.

Hiring an Attorney

If you’ve decided to hire a lawyer, like a criminal lawyer in Civic Center San Francisco, CA from Hallinan Law Firm, you should act quickly to find one to represent you. However, it is important to be careful in your selection. Consider the lawyer’s success rate with past cases similar to your own, cost, experience, and even location. These factors can help you narrow down a choice. Don’t hesitate to speak to a lawyer in person to get a feel for them and to make sure you can work efficiently together. If you have been accused of a crime, reaching out to a lawyer sooner than later can benefit your case greatly.

America’s vision of the legal process is largely based on the television courtroom drama – fictional portrayals where lawyers win big for their clients in attention-grabbing jury trials. To be sure, the civil justice system sometimes does work this way. However, most trials are much less exciting. And more importantly, most cases are settled without the need for a trial.

Is settling a bad thing? Not necessarily. Taking a case to trial could lead to a higher payout, but there are no guarantees. And because preparing for trial takes much more time and effort, the costs of the litigation process go way up. A negotiated settlement can mean a much faster resolution (and quicker payout) with lower attorney fees, less stress and a more certain outcome.

With all this in mind, it is important to understand that negotiating an injury settlement requires skill and knowledge – whether you are negotiating with the defendant, the defendant’s insurer or settling a claim with your own insurance provider. In all cases, being represented by an experienced personal injury attorney can be a huge advantage.

How an Attorney Can Strengthen Your Negotiations

First of all, the simple knowledge that you are being represented by an attorney will immediately get the other party to take you seriously (and will likely dissuade them from trying take advantage of you). It is almost worth hiring an attorney for this reason alone. But thankfully, there are many more benefits as well.

Here are just some of ways that an attorney will either improve your negotiating position or help you do the same. Your attorney will:

• Dissuade you from settling too quickly. Lowball offers are common from insurers and civil defense attorneys. You likely won’t get a fair offer immediately.
• Help you avoid making statements to insurers that could weaken your claim. Any statement that could be interpreted as admitting fault might be used to reject or reduce your claim.
•  Help you document injuries and compile medical records. Showing the extent of your injuries might require working with additional medical specialists and getting the details documented in your records.
• Help you with the intricate financial calculations related to the accident. It is important to know how much money you need to cover past/present/future medical bills, lost wages, reduced earning capacity, property damage, etc.
• Help you quantify non-economic damages like pain and suffering. You deserve to be compensated for these types of damages, but they are not always easy to turn into a dollar figure.
• Be ready to take the case to trial if the negotiations are not fruitful. Having a lawyer gives the other side more incentive to reach a settlement. But if you cannot reach one, your attorney will already be familiar with your case and ready to litigate.

Contact an Attorney About Your Legal Options

Before you even file a claim with your own insurer, why not discuss your case with an attorney? A consultation is all it takes to learn if you have a strong case. Discuss your options with a personal injury attorney, like a personal Injury lawyer in Maricopa County, AZ, at Saavedra Law Firm, PLC.

Judicial notice is a method used by courts to deem matters of fact or law as true without the need to present formal evidence.

What Can a Court Take Judicial Notice of in a Case?

There are two things a court can take judicial notice of in a case. 

1. Matters of Fact

A court may take judicial notice of facts in issue or facts from which they may be inferred. A judicially noticed fact must be: (a) generally known within the jurisdiction of where the trial court is located; and (b) capable of accurate and ready determination from sources whose accuracy cannot reasonably be questioned, leading to a fact that is not subject to reasonable dispute.

2. Matters of Law

A court may take judicial notice of certain matters of law. The following are some matters of law a court may take judicial of: 

• The Constitution
• The United States Statutes
• The Constitution of States
• State Statutes
• County, city, or town codes and ordinances
• Administrative Codes
• Population of cities and states
• Weather
• Case Law

When Can a Court Take Judicial Notice in a Case?

A court may take judicial notice at any stage of the case prior to submitting the case to the judge or jury for a verdict.

Is a Court Required to Take Judicial Notice in a Case?

A court may take judicial notice of matters of fact or law when requested by a party or at its own discretion. If requested by a party, a court must take judicial notice if supplied with the necessary information.

The Jury: Civil versus Criminal Matters

In civil matters, the court must instruct the jury to accept the judicially noticed fact or law as conclusive. However, in criminal matters, the court must instruct the jury that it may or may not accept the judicially noticed fact or law as conclusive.

Case Example

The case of Andolino v. State, 99 Nev. 346 (1983) provides an example of when a court may take judicial notice of case law when provided with the decision and order from the court that determined the law. In Andolino, a snowstorm swept the Las Vegas area and created hazardous road conditions. Road crews were dispatched to plow the highways. Plaintiffs were injured when their car entered an offramp, spun out of control, and collided with a guardrail as a result of snow and ice on the offramp.

The trial court granted summary judgment for the state and plaintiffs appealed. The appeals court reversed summary judgment in favor of the state, holding that the state owed an affirmative duty to maintain highways and keep them reasonably safe for the traveling public. The appeals court remanded the case back to the trial court. On remand, the trial judge sua sponte (on its own) suggested that plaintiffs had not established that the scene of the subject accident was under the jurisdiction of the Department of Highways. Plaintiffs directed the trial court to the appeal’s court holding that the state owed an affirmative duty and requested the trial court take judicial notice of it. The trial court declined to do so and issued an order in favor of the state. Plaintiffs appealed for the second time and the appeal’s court reversed the trial court’s decision.

The appeals court determined that Nevada law found in reported court opinions may be subject to judicial notice. When a plaintiff’s counsel addresses the trial court with the reasoning and holding of a court opinion and provides the court with that court’s decision and order as part of the trial record, the court must mandatorily take judicial notice of that law pursuant to NRS 47.150. Andolino further recognized that judicial notice of case law is generally unnecessary. However, when a trial court fails to recognize case law, counsel can remedy the situation by requesting judicial notice of the law and providing the necessary information to the court pursuant to NRS 47.150.

Contacting a Lawyer
If you or someone you know has been involved in an accident and wants to see if you have a case, contact a lawyer, like a personal injury lawyer from Eglet Adams, today. 

Trusts can be used as an asset protection tool and to help your beneficiaries avoid the cost and expense of probate. Trusts transfer legal ownership of assets to a trustee. The property is deeded in the name of the trust and the trustee is tasked with administering it as the grantor specifies. There may be more strings attached to an asset in a trust than if it were simply left to someone in a will.

While a trust is a fairly straightforward instrument, simple mistakes can interfere with and invalidate what would otherwise be an easy transfer of property. Let’s take a look at the common mistakes people can make when creating a trust.

1. You may fail to show intent to create a trust. This is quite important in the creation of a trust. American courts are very protective of individual property rights. The intent standard for a trust conveyance is much the same as if the property were being gifted. The individual granting the property must show that making such a grant was intentional. Without this, no trust can be considered valid.
2. You may fail to sufficiently fund the trust. No trust can be created unless the property changes hands. Failure to deliver the property or to place an adequate item or sum in trust will result in the trust failing. Funding problems may be due to the granting party not making delivery or placing in trust some future property interest that cannot be tied to any current property in a way that proves its viability.
3. You may fail to instruct beyond precatory language. Precatory language expresses a wish or desire but doesn’t create a legal obligation. Your trust document needs to contain some language that indicates that you’re creating a legally binding obligation.
4. You may fail to name beneficiaries. Trusts are created for the benefit of a specific, third-party interest. A person or group of persons must be named as beneficiaries. Viable trusts name beneficiaries and set out the terms for the trust and the duties the trustee owes to the beneficiaries.
5. You may fail to put the trust in writing. Where a trust involves a grant of real estate or is created through the execution of a will, the trust must appear in writing to be considered valid. An oral arrangement made with family or close friends will never see the inside of a courtroom.

Overall, you may perceive an even more basic problem: the cost necessary to establish a trust and to create a pour-over will that deposits any remaining assets into the trust at the end of the testator’s lifetime. Administering the trust also may add expense—the trustee may have to retitle documents or add new filings to transfer ownership to the trust. But these expenses should be compared to the costs of probate and paying fees to the estate executor that often equal a significant share of the probate estate.

Another possible problem involves interpersonal issues that may arise between the beneficiaries and the trustee if the beneficiaries resent the trustee’s role or believe that he or she is not acting in their best interests.

It’s important to remember, however, that you can overcome any of these problems by setting up a trust with forethought and professional assistance. Contact a lawyer, like a trust lawyer from Bott & Associates, Ltd., as soon as possible.  

Personal Injury Lawyer

Personal injuries come in all shapes and sizes and regardless of the situation, you deserve to be compensated. As you consider filing a lawsuit against the responsible party, you may wonder if you even have a case. The following are three questions you can answer that will help you make that determination.

Was the Responsible Party Negligent?

If a true accident caused your injury, you may not have a case against the other individual. You should also be sure you know which party was the negligent party. For example, if there is typically a stop sign at a particular corner you frequently drive through, but a maintenance crew took it down, you might assume the individual who hit you ran the stop sign. In reality, there wasn’t a sign there for someone to blow through. Instead of suing the driver of the car that hit you, you may be able to file against the city or the maintenance crew.

Did the Negligence Cause an Injury?

Sometimes there aren’t any injuries that result from an accident. If that sounds like your situation, you wouldn’t have anything to gain compensation for. Perhaps you were already dealing with an injury at the time of your accident. You wouldn’t be able to gain compensation for that existing injury unless it was worsened by the accident.

If the individual’s negligence did cause an injury, you would likely have a case. The severity of the injury might determine the amount of damages you could seek, so keep that in mind.

Are There Compensatory Damages that Resulted from the Injury?

Compensatory damages include medical bills, lost wages, loss of enjoyment of life, loss of the ability to make a living, pain and suffering, and more. If you experienced these things due to your injuries, you would be dealing with compensatory damages. This means you could be compensated for the amount of money you’d pay or lose.

Contacting a Lawyer to Learn More

When an accident occurs, there’s typically someone who was responsible. If you are considering filing a lawsuit against someone who caused your injury, be sure you have a solid case by determining negligence, whether it caused injuries, and whether compensatory damages resulted from them. A good attorney, like a personal injury attorney in Indianapolis, IN from Ward & Ward Law Firm, can help you make the determination, so get in touch with a professional today to learn more about what it takes to get your lawsuit started.

Being involved in any type of accident can be scary, and it becomes even worse when you are injured. You may feel concerned about paying for your medical bills related to the injury or how long your recovery will take. You may worry that you will not be able to return to work as soon as you would like, and this can affect your steady income. In many cases, you can file a personal injury lawsuit against the at-fault party. This allows you to receive the compensation that you need to pay for the expenses and loss of work related to an accident.

1. You were injured in a car accident.

While some car accident cases fall under a different branch of law, personal injury lawyers can often work on these cases. If you were injured in any type of accident involving another driver’s negligence, it could be worth it for you to pursue hiring a personal injury attorney. In this way, you can help recover lost money related to replacing your car, paying for medical bills, and being off of work.

2. You were injured in a slip-and-fall accident.

Slip-and-fall accidents are more common than you might think, and it is often as a result of negligence on someone’s else’s part. If you were hurt at a place of business that did not take proper precautions, you may have a case to bring forward. A common example of this is when a person slips on a floor that an employee mopped without placing a “wet floor” sign up.

3. You were injured as a result of someone else’s negligence.

There are a number of accidents that can happen as a result of someone else’s negligence. It is a sad but true part of life. If you are the unfortunate victim of any type of accident that involves another party, you may be entitled to personal injury compensation. This can include injuries that happen at a workplace or medical office; it can also cover accidents caused by a defective product.

Personal injury law helps victims of accidents get back on their feet. While you may fully recover from your incident, there could be others after you who are not so lucky. It is important that you stand up for what is right when an injustice happens to you so that you can try to prevent it happening to others in the future. Contact a lawyer, like a personal injury lawyer from Davis & Brusca, LLC, for help on your case.