Being arrested for a felony offense is very different from being arrested for a misdemeanor offense.
After being arrested for a felony offense, the State is required to present your case to a Grand Jury. The Grand Jury consists of (12) people that meet privately with the State’s Prosecutor, to decide if a person should be charged with a criminal offense (an “Indictment”), or if a person should not be charged with a criminal offense (a “No Bill”). If the Grand Jury chooses to Indict you on (charge you with) a felony charge, your case will then be filed in a District Court, and a court date will be set. If the Grand Jury chooses to give you a No Bill, your case will not be filed, and the charge is dropped. If a case is No Billed, no court appearance is required, and you may be entitled to the arrest being erased from your criminal record.
Commonly, the Grand Jury will make charging decisions on over one hundred cases per day, which means that they have very little time to review each case individually. The Prosecutor usually just gives the Grand Jurors a brief statement about your arrest and then asks them to charge you with the alleged crime (asks them to indict you). If you don’t have an attorney representing you through the Grand Jury stage of your alleged felony case, you will likely be indicted (charged with the crime) and miss a great opportunity for defense.
Grand Jury representation is underutilized. Unfortunately, many lawyers either don’t see the value of grand jury representation, or don’t know how. At Vitz Law, we have been very successful representing clients through the grand jury process. Although defense lawyers aren’t allowed to present cases to the grand jurors in person, we can show them your story by preparing and submitting a Grand Jury Packet that will give the grand jurors the opportunity to do the right thing. Sometimes the facts presented by the State are wrong, misleading, or don’t tell the whole story. Finding and learning your story is essential. The real story behind an alleged criminal charge is how our clients and the witnesses lived it, felt it, and experienced it. Grand Jurors don’t relate to “Just the Facts”. Grand Jurors relate to emotions that we all share in this life. The real story focuses more on why it happened, what really happened, or that it didn’t happen. Without the real story presented through Grand Jury Representation, the Grand Jurors only see you, and your complicated case, as a simple statement, and maybe a few sheets of paper from the State.