Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: No charges, case dismissed, no what?

It makes me very angry and sad when people hire and pay money to criminal defense lawyers who won't talk to them -- when, of course, they could have used yours truly, and put groceries on my table. If the case is a DA reject with no charges filed, he didn't earn any of his fee; and you should write to him certified mail return receipt requested demanding your file and fee refund check.

And despite the BS story you will probably get from your former lawyer about his having earned the fee you paid him by dint of his supposed behind-the-scenes influence with the DA, you can be certain that nothing he did had anything to do with the non-filing of charges.

Re: No charges, case dismissed, no what?

Yes, write and then call the lawyer to discuss and request a refund of some or all of the fees. Check you written Retainer Agreement for terms. If you can't resolve the issue with him, your worst case scenario is to file a Fee Dispute with the local bar association.

Re: No charges, case dismissed, no what?

Yes, write and then call the lawyer to discuss and request a refund of some or all of the fees. Check you written Retainer Agreement for terms. If you can't resolve the issue with him, your worst case scenario is to file a Fee Dispute with the local bar association. Remember, the prosecutor could theoretically re-file sometime. Keep me in mind if he does.

Re: No charges, case dismissed, no what?

Yes, write and then call the lawyer to discuss and request a refund of some or all of the fees. Check you written Retainer Agreement for terms. If you can't resolve the issue with him, your worst case scenario is to file a Fee Dispute with the local bar association. Remember, the prosecutor could theoretically re-file sometime. Keep me in mind if he does.

Re: No charges, case dismissed, no what?

Let's see if I can help a bit here. Under California's Business and Professions Code Section 6148,

"(a) In any case not coming within Section 6147 in which it is reasonably foreseeable that total expense to a client, including attorney fees, will exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000), the contract for services in the case shall be in writing:...

(c) Failure to comply with any provision of this section renders the agreement voidable at the option of the client, and the attorney shall, upon the agreement being voided, be entitled to collect a reasonable fee."

So if your lawyer gave you a written fee agreement, read it and see what it says about his fees for "defending" a case that never gets filed.

If he did NOT give you a written fee agreement, you could notify him in writing that you are electing to void the contract and ask for a refund of that portion you feel was not earned.

You do not mention how much you paid him, but assuming it was a fee for a full court defense on filed criminal charges, you might reasonably be entitled to a substantial refund.

Please note that I have been doing criminal defense for over 32 years and I sometimes agree to represent a client ONLY for the pre-filing stage, where all I do is contact the D.A. and try to convince them not to file charges. I have sometimes been very successful in this, but when I do this I only charge $300-500. It is only a conference with my client and a letter or two to the D.A., so I would not ask a retainer of full courtroom defense proportions.

So I do respectfully disagree with the other attorney who "guaranteed" that the attorney did nothing to try to convince the D.A. not to file. I have no knowledge whether your attorney did or didn't. If he says he did, why don't you ask him for a copy of the letter he sent? I can tell you that a mere phone call will not be effective. The D.A. who makes the charging decision needs to have the file on his desk and review it together with my letter. A cold call will be useless, so a letter is essential if a lawyer is going to try to dissuade him from filing.

Now for what may be even MORE important to you: Have you given any thought to exploring whether you can get the ARREST totally sealed and records physically destroyed so your record is as clean as before you got arrested? A mere arrest alone can negatively impact job hunting, job retaining, loan and school applications, scholarships, child custody, etc. And of course the more sensational the charge for which arrested, the more damage it will do.

For more info on this, you can go to my website at

http://lawyer-expungement.com/petition.htm

and

http://lawyer-expungement.com/results.htm

Re: No charges, case dismissed, no what?

If the District Attorney decided to "reject" charges, a rejection form would have been filled out and signed by the charging deputy district attorney. Your attorney should have asked for and received a copy of that rejection form. If not, you may want to contact the DA's office and request a copy of the rejection form yourself. It may help you later if you decide to get a statement of factual innocence from the Court.