Law Offices of Kenneth T Holder
FAMILY LAW
Domestic Violence
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
Get In Touch!
Do You Need a Lawyer?
It’s unfortunate, but too many attorneys treat their practice as a business and less like the profession our law office believes it should be. To make matters worse, there are many occasions where paying an attorney thousands of dollars is unnecessary, but because of the sales and fear tactics employed by an attorney consultation; many clients retain an attorney needlessly and become locked into a non-refundable retainer where very little representation (if any) by the attorney is rendered. Our office is committed to not engage in this type of practice. When we offer you a free consultation, you are guaranteed to become a well-informed client, confident that you are making the right decision as to whether you need to hire an attorney and making sure that you are hiring the right attorney who will give you the type of representation you were told you would receive.
Analyzing and understanding your case.
Although it may take some time and patience on your part, you can review the Penal Code yourself on-line and learn the requirements that must be met in order to prosecute and the penalties that could result if a prosecution against you is successful.
NOTE: Need to insert a link to the Penal Code at www.leginfo.ca.gov
Once you have studied the elements of your case, you still should follow through with an attorney consultation. The reason is that despite the penalties and punishments you discover in your research, there are many alternatives, which the California Penal Code does not discuss and that you may not be aware of. Even more important, one of our attorneys can make the legal language in the Penal Code easier for you to understand. Our office is committed to constantly explore all of the alternatives and options for our clients. If you have a case that is likely to turn against you, then it is our commitment to ensure that you do not suffer needless penalties or time in custody by what has increasingly become an uncaring and overreaching judicial process that often overlooks factors that can minimize a punishment against you. Not all cases go to trial and most probably should not. With you as an active participant in your own defense, we can ensure that your facts are reviewed in detail, brought to light in the courtroom, and given proper weight in our pretrial conversations with the prosecutors
Selecting your Attorney.
Your objective in hiring an attorney to get the best possible outcome for your legal matter. It is a well-known adage that “you get what you pay for”. In other words, if you have a “free” attorney representing you, then be prepared to get a result that is indicative of very little, if any, effort on your behalf. Similarly, if you hire a tax attorney or a worker’s compensation attorney to represent you in your criminal case, be prepared to get a result from an attorney who has no experience in dealing with the criminal courts system. If it helps to clear up the dilemma, you can imagine the outcome of a foot specialist doctor performing open-heart surgery on a patient. The outcome is highly unlikely to end very well for the patient. When you are discussing your case over the phone with an attorney, look for the following warning signs:
The initial phone call:
- Is the attorney going through the facts of your case so that he clearly understands them; or is he simply glossing over the facts, trying to end the call quickly, and pressing you to come into the office? This is indicative of an attorney who is focused more on treating his practice as a “business” and less likely as a “profession”.
- Is the attorney willing to discuss fees with you frankly; or is he vague as to how much your case is going to cost you? Since criminal cases are typically based upon a flat-fee structure, an experienced criminal attorney should be able to provide you a fairly close idea of the legal costs you are likely to incur.
Getting the “biggest bang for your buck”.
- The experience level of your attorney can often be a “double-edged sword”. On one hand, an experienced attorney has a lengthy association with the law and is probably familiar with the court personnel, the courts themselves, and often has a good grasp of the likely outcome, even before your first court date.
- However, this experience and familiarity with the likelihood of the outcome can limit an experienced attorney’s devotion to your case to where he may simply pursue the same outcome as he did with all similar clients that came before you. This can often prevent the attorney from looking into the details of your case that might make a result more favorable in our matter.
The fact is: Very quickly, even new criminal attorneys can be brought up to the familiarity levels required in criminal courts. One reason is because BY LAW, they are obligated to do so. Oftentimes, however, less experienced attorneys are not so jaded by the system and are willing to look beyond the closed box in which more experienced attorneys operate. This can be an important factor in deciding to hire the commitment level of a lesser inexperienced attorney who will go “all out” to avoid his client doing jail time vs. hiring a more experienced attorney who simply conducts business as usual.
About: Domestic Violence
In order to convict someone of domestic violence, the prosecuting attorney must prove:
- An accused person committed an act of physical abuse,
- Against a spouse or former spouse, or cohabitant or former cohabitant, who can also be a non-family member who resides (or resided) in the household.
An accused can be charged with domestic violence as a misdemeanor, which carries a sentence up to 1 year) or as a felony, which usually involves a significant injury to the victim and carries a sentence of up to 5 years in state prison. Whether a misdemeanor or felony, the crime of domestic violence almost always carries with it a “stay-away” (restraining) order directed to the accused not to have any further contact with the alleged victim. This poses a problem, of course, because in far too many cases, the accused and the victims of domestic violence want to reunite in the household before the court terminates the stay-away order. This places an accused person at a substantial risk of incarceration if hostilities arise once again.
Therefore, it is imperative that defendants accused of domestic violence retain an attorney of the caliber of Ken Holder, who is committed to ensuring that not only is the case handled properly with the prosecutor of your case, but that all steps necessary to avoid the long-term effects of a stay-away order are dealt and that either: 1) a reconciling couple are re-united as soon as practical or, 2) in the event of termination of the relationship, the defendant’s property rights are protected.
In addition, after cooler heads prevail, it often becomes fairly obvious that a physical threat or act did not really occur to a level of “violence.” Yet, prosecutors rarely dismiss a charge of domestic violence against an accused, regardless of the wishes of the victim. The result is that by over-inflating the charge, far too many accused persons are convicted of a crime, which in reality, never took place. Thus, it is very easy to see why this type of attorney is needed to ensure that defendants in domestic violence cases are not “run over” by an overly aggressive prosecution.