Felony
The law in California can be harsh when it comes to crimes associated with drug and alcohol abuse. These can include anything from a DUI to meth manufacturing – anything where substance abuse plays a role. Because crimes related to alcohol and drugs can have a violent, injurious or even deadly component, California sentencing tends to escalate quickly as offenders repeat their mistakes. Properly defending cases such as this requires experience and a granular understanding of the governing statutes, which is why you want to retain an effective California criminal attorney from the start.
Felony charges may apply to a number of crimes, of course, but the word carries a specific meaning when it is attached to a DUI charge. There are three situations in which a DUI may rise to the level of a felony:
- If it is your fourth DUI within ten years
- If you have been charged with a felony DUI already within ten years
- If your intoxication led to the injury of another person
The first two instances are fairly objective, but the third may be defendable with proper representation. California felony DUIs that arise because of an injury require that the state draw a specific through line from the intoxication, to a second broken law, to the injury itself. Break this chain of causality with good evidence and you could escape the far more serious charge of felony DUI.
Felony drug crimes in California can involve far more than driving under the influence, however. Controlled substances such as heroin, LSD, and methamphetamines may all result in felony charges under the right circumstances. Those circumstances may include possession over a certain amount, trafficking, manufacturing, or any drug-related incident accompanied by the use of a firearm. As with DUI offenses, these are charges that could benefit greatly by retaining an aggressive California drug crime defense attorney.
The Los Angeles felony offense attorneys at the Law Offices of Lawrence Wolf have been helping clients charged with felony crimes in California for over 40+ years, and in that time we have earned an exceptional record of success. If you have found yourself on the wrong side of a serious charge and do not want to pay for that mistake with a prison sentence, contact The Law Offices of Lawrence Wolf today. We offer free consultations and broad representation throughout Los Angeles, Orange, Sacramento and Ventura Counties.
Get your questions answered - call me for your free, 20 min phone consultation (310) 277-1707.