Family Justice Center

Archive for July 21st, 2010

Whether one is charged for minor infractions or the most severe capital felonies, all types of criminal offenses can be quite serious. Whenever one is charged with a crime, one must be in a position to understand what type of penalties can be applied in such cases.  Interacting with the legal system in the court or during the probation checkups would follow the charge. A criminal law lawyer can help to understand the charges that may be formed against the accused, the penalties that he or she might have to face and more importantly what type of legal protection can save him/her from the criminal charges. This article deals with the basic guidelines on the classification of criminal offenses. One important point to be mentioned here is that the charges and penalties differ in different states. A general explanation of each of the criminal charge is given here.

*  Felony – Considered as one of the most serious types of crime in the United States, felony could inflict very severe punishments on the accused. There are several crimes that come under felony including murder, rape, terrorism, arson, kidnapping, and burglary. When a person gets convicted with a felony crime he/she may get 1 year or more of imprisonment, monetary fines, prohibition on voting and working in several areas. He/she may face difficulty finding a suitable job for even..  Someone who is not a citizen of US may even face deportation. Most of the felons would have to serve their time in a federal prison instead of a local jail. For first time offenders the penalties are much reduced while repeating offenders are penalized to serve longer sentences in the prison. If one is charged with felony crime a criminal law lawyer must be immediately consulted for he/she can help in reducing the penalties.

*  Misdemeanor – Misdemeanor are not as serious as felony crimes. Depending upon the severity of the crime, the misdemeanors are further classified into gross misdemeanors, regular misdemeanors, and petty misdemeanors. Most of the criminals who are charged with misdemeanor offenses, serve time in a local prison instead of a federal prison. There are some states that allow the misdemeanor offenders to serve their prison sentence on the weekends, while they can continue doing their regular job during the week. The criminal offenses that come under misdemeanor crimes include petty theft, assault, trespassing, vandalism, public intoxication, and prostitution. Possible penalties of a misdemeanor crime can be imprisonment up to one year, probation, monetary fines, and community service. With the timely involvement of the criminal law lawyer, these penalties can be completely avoided.

*  Infraction / Petty Offenses – These are the least serious crimes in the United States, and most of the states consider infraction as civil offenses and in these cases penalties would be less severe. Most of the petty offenses are not considered criminal charges and hence they would not result in imprisonment. The crimes that come under infractions include traffic offenses, jaywalking, and littering. The penalties can range from less than a week in jail to monetary fines. An experienced criminal law lawyer can reduce the penalties to just the court order to fix the criminal situation.

For further information on the categorization of criminal charges and what all are the penalties that a matter can levy,  a dedicated and experienced criminal law lawyer should be contacted.

With entrance to law school becoming more and more competitive, the Law School Admission Test is playing a large role in determining the fate of the candidates. It’s not enough to just pass the test, successful applicants need to ace it. Students with a 3.5 GPA are a dime a dozen, but LSAT scores of 165 and higher show your analytical thinking ability in it’s best light.

The LSAT, or Law School Admission Test, is offered by the Law School Admission Council and is necessary for admission to the more than 200 law schools who are members of the LSAC. Though there are hundreds of test locations, not all test dates are available at all test centers. Check the LSAC website for exam schedules and sites. You should register as early as possible to ensure that you get your first choice of location.

You can register for the LSAT either online, by telephone or by mail. But do yourself a favor and signup on time. There is a late registration period available, but you will pay an extra $64 for the privilege. For those students who celebrate the Sabbath on Saturday, alternative exams are usually given on the Monday following the regular Saturday tests or the June exam is given on a Monday.

The LSAT is given four times a year in February, June, October and December and includes five 35 minute multiple choice sections and a 35 minute writing sample at the end. Four of the five multiple choice sections are scored…the non-scored one is used to check new test questions. You may not know which is which, so be prepared to give full attention to all sections.

The four scored sections will fall into the following categories: reading comprehension, analytical reasoning and two of logical reasoning. The writing sample is not scored either, but a copy of it is sent to all law schools to which you apply, so you want to put forth your best effort.

Once you’ve decided to take the LSAT, your next step is preparation. You can find sample questions and tests on the LSAC website, as well as on various LSAT test preparation sites such as Kaplan. Question categories are consistent from test to test, so once you’ve completed a few sample exams, you will have a good idea of what’s coming. If the sample tests aren’t sufficient to make you feel comfortable, there are courses available both online and in a classroom setting. The online courses have the advantage of being accessible 24 hours per day, important for someone who may be juggling a busy work and school schedule. Taking the course in the classroom allows direct interaction with the teacher, as well as forcing you to focus to be prepared for class.

Scoring is based on the number of correct answers given. If you find yourself coming down to the end of a section and you have several blanks, make sure you get some answer marked. Even guessing, you’ll have a 20% chance of a correct answer and if you could eliminate any definitely wrong answers, your percentage goes up.