A person who has been charged with a crime may feel hopeless and wonder whether it’s really important to hire an attorney to represent them. After all, the police have evidence they have committed the crime, so what help could an attorney in Bessemer, AL be? The reality is, in most cases it’s not just about the evidence that was collected, there’s quite a bit an attorney can look into that may result in the charges being dismissed.
The most common reason cases are dismissed is because of lack of evidence. Even if the person is sure the police have enough evidence for a conviction, this isn’t necessarily true. The police must have acquired the evidence legally, and the person’s arrest must have been legally done as well. This is often difficult for the average person to truly understand since there are both federal and state laws dealing with the arrests, searches, and the collection of evidence. An attorney, however, will be familiar with every detail of how evidence can be collected, how the person is arrested, and how a search can be done before the evidence can be used against the person.
Once the person hires an attorney, they will start looking through the case to determine what might have been done incorrectly. They’ll look at the reason why the person was stopped by the police, or the police were called to their location. They’ll also look at how the police handled the situation, why the person was arrested, whether their rights were upheld, and how the police searched the person and their immediate surroundings for evidence. This can be easy for the lawyer to do in some instances, but some cases might be far more complex, depending on the charge and the amount of evidence against the person.
If the attorney in Bessemer, AL can show the arrest was not carried out legally, or the evidence was not collected legally, the evidence may not be admissible in court. This means the charges may be dropped, and the person won’t have to worry about a conviction on their record or any sentencing for the crime they were accused of. For more information, contact Forstman & Cutchen today.