Legal Question in Criminal Law in Michigan

Re: rtail fraud 3rd degree

Yes, a conviction would definitely hurt you. You do not want something like this following you around forever. I would strongly suggest hiring a lawyer to negotiate a plea on your behalf whereby you plead guilty to a lesser charge, or work out a deal where you plead guilty, but that it gets dismissed if you stay out of trouble for 6 months, etc.

Please contact me if you'd like to retain a lawyer. If you cannot afford one, ask the Court to appoint the public defender to assist you. You need to ensure you plead to a "delayed sentence" or something where you are not pleading guilty to the offense as charged, where it will go on your record.

Thanks.

Re: retail fraud 3rd degree

Try not to harm yourself. It's a common misdemeanor and you're not going to jail. Your future won't likely be harmed if you follow directions.

1. Go to court at the appointed time.

2. Plead NOT Guilty and ask for a court appointed attorney (cost about $85).

3. That lawyer will appear a few weeks later with you at your pretrial and suggest you enter a guilty plea with the court's agreement that you will have no record. There are a number of ways to do this. The attorney will know the best way. Listen carefully to that person as he/she will have a lot of court appointments that day and little time for each defendant. Your case and your concerns, while important to you, are common and relatively simple to resolve.

The outcome should be to your benefit.

or

ask your father for money for a private lawyer - especially if he's paying for your tuition. Parent's don't like to be surprised when their child's conviction wipes out their investment.

Re: rtail fraud 3rd degree

Whether you hire an attorney or get a court-appointed attorney, you are probably a good candidate for HYTA (Holmes Youthful Trainee Act) status. This is for people 17-20 yrs old ... usually misdemeanors ... usually first-offenders. Judges, in their discretion, can use the HYTA process to put them on probation and,dismiss the case if they successfully complete probation.

Read more about it at www.prosecutingattorney.info ... go to the Legal Definitions page and scroll down to HYTA.