Legal Question in Criminal Law in Minnesota

Re: What to expect in court for theft citation?

With no prior offenses, jail is highly unlikely. Most people in this situation will try to achieve what I call "an expungeable outcome" -- meaning, an outcome which one day could be expunged from your public records (sealed from public view).

In order to achieve that, you cannot plead guilty, or get convicted. Either of those would effectively close the door on a future expungement, under Minnesota's expungement statute, Chapter 609A.

The only agreement that would meet that criteria for you would be a "continuance for dismissal" for some period of time, with conditions such as payment of court costs, no same or similar offenses, etc. Sometimes this is called "pretrial diversion," or "deferred prosecution," or a few other labels. But it never, never involves a guilty plea!

If you feel confident enough, you might try to going to court without a lawyer to ask for the above outcome. If the prosecutor will agree to this, then you could resolve the case favorably in this way without having to spend money on a lawyer. If the prosecutor won't agree to this, do not whine or cave in -- just ask for another court date, and time to retain a lawyer. Then give me a call to discuss retainer and representation. I have been quite successful in getting results like the above, in these kinds of cases -- though of course there have been exceptions, and can be no guarantees of a certain result. Sometimes people retain me even after I suggest the above, before trying to work it out themselves, because they feel nervous, and feel more secure having me there representing them, even though at some cost. I am happy to discuss representation at any stage the potential client wishes -- though this should be either before or shortly after the first court appearance.