Legal Question in Disability Law in California

Your first court date is arraignment, where you will do nothing more than plead not guilty. �What can you do�? Hire an attorney, unless you know how to effectively represent yourself in court against a professional prosecutor intending to convict. Effective plea-bargaining, using whatever legal defenses, facts and sympathies there may be, could possibly keep you out of jail, or at least dramatically reduce it, depending upon all the facts. No amount of free 'tips and hints' from here or anywhere else are going to effectively help you in your defense, other than the advice to exercise the 5th Amendment right to SHUT UP and do NOT talk to anyone except an attorney about the case. That includes on this or any other web site or public forum. If serious about hiring counsel to help you in this, and if this is in SoCal courts, feel free to contact me.

As a single mom I would be surrprised to learn that you are able to hire private counsel, so you will get the public defender and this will likely result in your entering a guilty plea. Probably you will avoid jail time, this time. Since you used your child in the crime, expect to lose custody. Start calling your relatives to see if any of them will take your child if it comes to that.

The next time you are caught stealing it will be a felony and you could go to prison