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By: Lawrence Wolf New federal guidelines are setting thousands of drug criminals free under early release programs. According to the guidelines set by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, judges will have the legal power to set the maximum and the minimum years inmates are imprisoned for their convictions. This decision also includes those individuals already incarcerated. Any prisoner whose sentencing may be reduced should contact their drug crime lawyer to ensure all steps are in place for an early release. How does this work? If a prisoner has served three years of a five year sentence and the committee reduced the… Read More

Millions of Americans will be celebrating the holiday season by attending social events and partying. Having fun and enjoying yourself is terrific. Doing it responsibly is even better. If you drive while under the influence of alcohol and or drugs, even prescription drugs, your decision to do so will cost you a lot of money if a police officer stops you. A Los Angeles DUI attorney will know what to do. Costs of a DUI conviction in California Many people do not realize how much mon ey they will have to pay out if convicted of a DUI. According to the… Read More

Before you get behind the wheel after consuming alcohol this holiday season, stop and think. How would a conviction for driving under the influence affect you, your family and your bank account? After factoring in fines, court costs, attorney’s fees, probation costs, traffic school and increased premiums for your car insurance, a DUI could cost you more than $10,000. How a Holiday DUI Can Result in Financial Misery Refusing administration of a roadside test or failing the test may result in immediate suspension of your license, and you may be taken into custody. In California and other states, you may… Read More

Using a prescription medication helps the body when problems occur. Many medications reduce the symptoms of health conditions while an individual recovers. The primary problem associated with using a medication is the way the body reacts to the drug. Due to the way that prescriptions impact the body, some individuals hire California criminal defense lawyers when a problem arises while driving a car. Dangers of Driving Under the Influence of Prescriptions According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or the FDA, individuals must be certain that a medication will not cause complications when driving. Since some over-the-counter and prescription drugs… Read More

The financial crisis caused millions of Americans to lose their jobs, which led to home foreclosures. Public outcries demanded the bankers responsible for the crisis be held responsible. Since then, the Justice Department has only convicted one high-level banker. This may be because the Justice Department’s efforts to charge financial criminals have failed. Dewey & LeBoef Mistrial The Dewey & LeBoef trial spent four months in the courtroom, followed by 22 days of deliberation. The complexities of the Dewey & LeBoef case overwhelmed the jurors to the point that they could not reach a verdict. Raising concerns that financial crime has reached… Read More

Over the past year, the number of inmates in California’s jails and prisons has decreased by about 13,000, largely due to the enactment of Proposition 47. Also known as the Safe Neighborhood and Schools Act, Prop 47 is expected to enrich California state coffers by more than $150 million this fiscal year thanks to reduced prison and jail overcrowding. In November 2014, Californians overwhelmingly passed Prop 47 with the intent of ending long sentences for minor offenses such as drug possession and petty property crimes. Implementation of the new law has proven challenging, however, with some public officials and law enforcement agencies reportedly opposing… Read More

In the 1970s, a wave began to develop throughout our United States to enact tougher laws, even for nonviolent crimes. Our prisons became overloaded with American citizens and expensive to run. This is why California’s Proposition 47 came about. Implementation of Prop 47 In past decades, individual states continued to strengthen their criminal justice laws. They made previous misdemeanor crimes felonies. Their enforcement meant longer years of incarceration for individuals who committed these crimes. For example, in some states stealing products from a store with a value of $500 was a misdemeanor and $1000 was a felony. The new laws dropped the… Read More

By Lawrence Wolf Part of the complexity related to statutory rape law is the fact that each state has its own unique set of laws and different spin on the laws. Because the laws vary a great deal from state to state, it’s important to learn the laws where you live – specifically as they pertain to the following criteria. Age of Consent This is the age at which the state believes a person can legally consent to having sex. California Penal Code Section 261-269 identifies the age of consent for the state of California as 18 years of age. Before 18… Read More

Federal prosecutions of white-collar crimes are down by 29 percent from just five years ago and have hit a 20-year low, according to a report based on Justice Department records. Since the Clinton administration, prosecutions have declined by more than 36 percent, with a brief increase following the financial crisis of 2008, International Business Times reports. In analyzing thousands of Justice Department documents, researchers at Syracuse University found that the federal government prosecuted 5,173 cases of white-collar crime during the first nine months of 2015. That number represents a decrease of about 4,000 cases from 10 years ago, according to The National Law Review.… Read More

During the first months of 2015, crime in Los Angeles has rapidly increased, with robberies up 19% and felony assaults up 26%. The change is alarming, but the reasons are not surprising. In the view of criminologists, the explanation is simple—sometimes trends take hold despite of what the police force is doing. Some criminologists observe, more specifically, that violent crime in cities like L.A. may have dropped so deeply in recent years that the numbers have nowhere to go but up. It is also possible that the rise can be partly attributed to the L.A. Police Department’s crime numbers being more accurately reported.… Read More