Sex crimes allegations carry grievous legal and social consequences. Even without a conviction, an allegation negatively affects your social standing among your colleagues, family, and friends. Finding the best sex crimes lawyer near you with a robust understanding of the sex crime laws in your state safeguards your right to a fair trial.
A sex crime lawyer works on cases involving:
For most states, a misdemeanor or felony of a sexual nature is considered a sex crime. Your attorney evaluates the evidence against you and develops a compelling defense strategy.
A lawyer for sex crime near you helps you secure the best possible outcome for your case. Find an attorney with considerable years of experience handling cases similar to yours and who knows how to create a credible defense strategy.
Your defense attorney will work on avoiding trial by petitioning for charges to be reduced or dropped or by negotiating a plea deal without a sex crime registry. Should your matter proceed to trial, depending on the nature of your case, some of the defense options your attorney may leverage include:
Your attorney may also consider working with medical and forensic psychologists to establish your innocence. A forensic psychologist may convince the court that you do not fit the profile of a sex offender.
If you have been accused of a sexual crime, please contact a sex crimes attorney immediately. Your defense attorney will launch an investigation that may unearth the evidence to help your matter not proceed to trial. But undue delay makes discovering helpful proof difficult, as crucial details about the case may be lost, discarded, or forgotten.
When looking for sex crimes attorneys near you, choose a person or a firm with a proven track record in your state. A quick online search can surface four to five firms or individual super lawyers you can investigate. Carefully read reviews available on their page and find out if they have links to handled cases. Analyze the outcomes of their cases, looking at how long they took and whether the results were favorable to their accused.
Once you have a few options for sex crimes lawyers near you, give them a call or schedule an in-person consultation to learn more about how they handle sex crime cases.
A sex crimes lawyer costs an average of $450 per hour. However, attorneys and firms usually work with several payment structures as follows:
Depending on the trial strategy, the attorney may also extend additional costs to the client, such as the cost of investigators, engaging expert witnesses, and deposition of witnesses.
In most cases, a sex crimes attorney will not charge for consultation. Tell the attorney everything they need to know about your case in the initial consultation so they may consider all legal issues you may be facing. In response, the attorney will help you understand the consequences of the allegations against you and the options available to you. At the end of the consultation, the attorney informs you of the charges of working with them or their firm and gives you the time you need to decide whether to retain them.
Upon arrest, you have the right to remain silent. Do not speak to law enforcement officers or anyone involved in the case without having an attorney present with you. The prosecution will use anything you say during and after an arrest against you in court.
Consent is determined within the context of how individuals respond in the circumstances likely to lead to sexual intimacy. Generally, the agreement is communicated either verbally or through actions in the affirmative, indicating a desire to be intimate with a person.
It is never too early or too late to withdraw consent. If a person at any time during sexual intimacy communicates a desire to end the encounter, then any forcible sexual interaction after that constitutes rape.
States have varying requirements for people convicted of certain sex crimes to submit their information to a sex offender registry in the state in which they were sentenced and where they live. Registration in the state where an offender life depends on whether the act is an offense in the new state. The requirement is designed to ensure that the offender does not live or work near vulnerable children or others.
Generally, states require that convicted sex offenders submit details about:
After the initial registrations, offenders must renew their information at least once a year. An offender must also notify officials immediately of their move to a new state, change of name, or employment status.