Virginia Criminal Law: Impact of the First Step Act

You may have heard about a new law that was passed by the federal government. You may also be wondering how the new bill may impact your case. The new bill is called the First Step Act.

So what is the First Step Act, and what does it mean for your case?

What is the Purpose of the First Step Act?

There have been many concerns raised that the criminal justice system is unfair. There have also been concerns that sentences are too harsh and prisons are not well maintained. These are the focuses of the First Step Act.

The law is designed to reform some federal prisons and to provide judges with more lee-way in dealing with non-violent crimes. It is also designed to improve the quality of federal prisons.

What Does the First Step Act Do?

The First Step Act does several things. First, the Act requires that the United States Attorney General review the current status of federal prisons to determine what actions can be taken to improve them. The Attorney General is one of the most important prosecutors in the United States. There is a timeline provided for how long the Attorney General has to do this. The Attorney General is supposed to provide written recommendations on how best to address concerns in the federal prison system.

The First Step Act also creates special programs for inmates designed to help reform and reintegrate them into society. Parts of the program include substance abuse treatment, home release, community service and job training. As a part of this program, inmates can be rewarded with special privileges for participation Some examples include good time towards sentences and phone privileges.

Third, the Act tries to improve the quality of life for inmates in the federal prison system. The law encourages the placement of inmates near their families, has restrictions on how to treat pregnant women and accommodations for illness. The Act also requires prison officers to be trained in de-escalation tactics to prevent fights.

Finally, the Act allows for individuals who have been previously sentenced to certain drug offenses to apply to a federal court for a reduction in sentence. There are certain time limitations placed on the Act.

What Does the First Step Act Not Do?

There are some common misconceptions about what this Act does and does not do. This law has no impact on a state criminal charge. If you have been charged under certain Virginia laws and may be faced with going to state facilities, the First Step may have nothing to do with your case. The Act also does not impact the state sentencing guidelines for local drug offenses. This Act is focused solely on the Federal Bureau of Prisons and federal prison reform.

Virginia Personal Injury Law: Who is Responsible For Paying You?

In a previous post, I discussed what you should do immediately after being injured. The last step in that process was to talk to an attorney to discuss what your rights are. Before you talk to an attorney, you should know who might be responsible for paying for your injuries. A lawyer is more likely to take your case if someone who has the money to compensate you is responsible.

The legal term for determining who is responsible for paying for your injuries is “liability.” So who has liability, and how does that impact the outcome of a case?

What is a Duty?

In order for someone to be liable to you for an injury, that person must first possess some kind of responsibility towards you. For example, if you are injured in a car wreck, other drivers owe you a responsibility of driving safely. If you are injured in a store, the store owes you a responsibility to keep the floor from being slippery.

However, just because you have been injured does not mean someone had a duty to protect you. For example, getting injured at a dentist’s office because the ice outside the building was not taken care of may not mean the doctor is the one you should sue. In some instances, the proper person would be the doctor’s landlord.

What if You Made a Mistake?

Sometimes people who are injured were doing something they were not supposed to. For example, if you were leaving the grocery store and forgot to look both ways before going into the parking lot and you were hit as a result, you may not be able to collect any more from the other side. Virginia is a state that requires the person seeking money to have done nothing wrong themselves.

Therefore, it is important to know whether or not you made any mistakes, as it may impact whether a lawyer wants to take your case.

Why You Need a Lawyer

Hiring a lawyer is important because a lawyer is trained in identifying the proper person to sue. If you do not sue the right person, your case may automatically be dismissed. Make sure you consult with an attorney immediately after your injury to understand your rights in more detail.

Virginia Personal Injury Law: What To Do When Injured

If you are injured in a car accident, at work or in public there are certain steps you need to immediately take in order to protect yourself. Failure to follow these basic steps may result in an otherwise strong personal injury case being denied or dismissed.

So what are these basic steps, and what should you know if you get injured?

Make a List of Witnesses to the Accident

The very first thing you need to do if you are injured is to identify individuals that may have witnessed your injury. Witnesses are important, as you need other people to support your side of events. Failure to have witnesses on your side may result in a “he said, she said” scenario.

These are scenarios in which it is solely your word versus the person who may have injured you. There are several ways of securing witnesses to an event. One is to immediately call the police in the event that you are injured. Police will often show up to a scene and take down names and contact information.

If you are unable to contact the police, consider having yourself or someone who is with you talk to those nearby. The information you need to gather includes, but is not necessarily limited to, full name, age, address of where they reside, and a phone number. This information will help your lawyer locate the witnesses and request that they be at trial or submit statements to insurance.

Go to the Hospital

The second thing you need to do is to make sure there is a record of your injuries. The most common way of doing that is to go to the hospital immediately after being injured. Many people forget this step, and feel that, in the heat of the moment, the injury is not that bad.

However, adrenaline could be going through your system immediately after being injured. You may not feel the injury until several days later. Additionally, there are some injuries which will not manifest themselves immediately. For example, it may take several days for soft tissue damage to become apparent.

If you fail to go to the hospital immediately, you may have problems down the road proving that your injuries are a result of the accident that occurred. One of the most common tactics of insurance providers and businesses is to claim that something else may have aggravated the injury. This is a common tactic to deny your claim.

Contact a Personal Injury Lawyer

The third step is to contact a personal injury lawyer. Many people may think to contact insurance first, but you may accidentally say something to the insurance adjuster would could hurt your case. Insurance adjusters are specially trained in trying to get you to answer questions that may harm your claim. Their job is to try and prevent payouts.

Therefore, contact a lawyer as soon as possible to protect yourself and your claim. Most personal injury lawyers offer free consultations.

Virginia Crminal Law: Appealing a Conviction

Sometimes even the best trial strategies result in a conviction. However, a guilty verdict is not the end of the line. Virginia, like most states in the United States, have a process for a person who has been found guilty to appeal the verdict. There are many different types of appeals, and the appeal process changes depending on the severity of the crime you have been charged with and where you are in the appeal process.

So how do appeals basically work in Virginia, and what are some things you need to be aware of when discussing your criminal case with your lawyer?

Criminal Appeals from General District Court

If you have been charged with a misdemeanor offense, it is likely that your case will be tried in one of Virginia’s district courts. District Courts are part of a group of courts known as “courts not of record.” The Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court is one other such court.

Anything that happens in a court not of record is unlikely to be written down. When you appeal from a court not of record, the next level of court hears all the evidence as if hearing it for the first time.

In order to appeal a guilty verdict from a general district court, you must file the proper appeals paperwork within ten (10) days from your conviction. If you have timely filed your notice of appeal, you also have the option, within sixty (60) days, to have the court not of record reconsider the matter. If the court reconsiders the matter and reverses the conviction, you can withdraw the appeal.

Criminal Appeals From Circuit Court

If you have been charged with a felony offense, or if you are on appeal from the general district court, the likely court that will hear your case is the Circuit Court of Virginia. The Circuit Court of Virginia is known as a “court of record.” Everything that happens in Circuit Court is written down and recorded.

As such, if you have to appeal to the next level of court after the circuit court you better make sure your grounds for appeal are clearly stated during your circuit court trial. This is known as “perfecting an issue for appeal.” Your criminal defense lawyer, if they are doing their job, should be perfecting any applicable issues for appeal to the next level of court.

There are a number of things a criminal defense attorney will need to do to prepare an appeal to the next level of court, which would be the Court of Appeals. Some common activities a criminal defense lawyer will do include requesting that a sentence be postponed, preparing a transcript for the appeal, and requesting additional bail terms.

Like in the General District Court, there is a time limit to file an appeal. An appeal must be filed within thirty (30) days from the conviction date. The notice of appeal in a circuit court case must be far more descriptive than the appeal from general district court. You must state every single grounds that entitles you to an appeal. Failure to preserve or mention a grounds means your case will be denied.

Criminal Appeals from Court of Appeals

The last step in the appeals process is an appeal from the Court of Appeals to the Supreme Court of Virginia. As with the other courts, there are deadlines and filing requirements for taking an appeal from the Court of Appeals to the Supreme Court. These deadlines are strict, and failure to comply with those deadlines will likely cause your appeal to be denied.

Why You Need a Criminal Appeals Lawyer

Appealing a case is a complicated process and even normal lawyers often have a hard time navigating the complex maze of rules. Most lawyers will recommend that you utilize a special appeals lawyer to help in the process. Make sure you have a lawyer with you every step of the way, as failure to properly note an appeal will automatically mean a loss.

Virginia Criminal Law: Post-Conviction Sentence Modification

Have you or a loved one been convicted of a crime and received an unfair sentence? Many people often feel that they did not receive a fair shake in the trial court. Whenever this happens, there are really only two methods to address the unfair sentence. The first is to appeal in time, and the second is to file a request with the Court to modify the sentence.

This article is about post-conviction sentence modification, and addresses the second option. So what is the law behind post-conviction sentence modification?

What Does the Law Say?

Post-conviction sentence modification is governed by Virginia Code Section 19.2-303. The law grants judges the ability to modify a sentence after a conviction. The law states that:

After conviction, whether with or without jury, the court may suspend imposition of sentence or suspend the sentence in whole or part and in addition may place the defendant on probation under such conditions as the court shall determine, including monitoring by a GPS (Global Positioning System) tracking device, or other similar device, or may, as a condition of a suspended sentence, require the defendant to make at least partial restitution to the aggrieved party or parties for damages or loss caused by the offense for which convicted, or to perform community service, or both, under terms and conditions which shall be entered in writing by the court.

Restrictions on the Judge’s Power to Grant a Modification

However, the Court’s power to modify a sentence is not absolute. There are two types of restrictions on the Court’s ability to modify the sentence; timing and extent of modification.

TYPE OF MODIFICATION: LENGTH OF SENTENCE

The first type of modification is a modification on the length of an imposed sentence. The Supreme Court of Virginia has decided that a request to modify the length of a sentence must either be brought within twenty-one (21) days from the date the judge signed the sentencing order, or before the inmate is transferred to the Department of Corrections. The specific amount of time used it whichever occurs last.

TYPE OF MODIFICATION: TERMS OF SUSPENSION

The Supreme Court of Virginia has been less clear about post-conviction modification of the terms of any suspended sentence. For example, if you entered into a suspended sentence plea agreement requiring home electronic monitoring, the Court may theoretically be able to address your request to remove home electronic monitoring outside these time limits. However, this is unsettled law.

What You Need to Prove

In order to have post-conviction sentencing relief, you must have a very good reason for doing so. Common reasons include new evidence that was not available at trial or new family demands.

Why You Need a Lawyer

If you or a loved one need to modify their sentence, it is important to consult a lawyer as soon as possible after trial. There are deadlines to file these requests, and a lot of things need to be proven even if you timely file the request. Talk to a lawyer if you are charged with a crime.