In New Jersey, there can be severe punishment for those who commit crime. For criminal offenses, you may have punishment like jail time, penalties, permanent remark (criminal charge) on your records and others. Unlike other states, you will not have anything like Misdemeanors and Felonies in New Jersey. Instead, Felonies are known as indictable offenses, and Misdemeanors are known as disorderly persons offenses in New Jersey.
The superior court handles the indictable charges, and the municipal court handles the disorderly persons offenses. Irrespective of the type of charges, you must contact a criminal defense lawyer in New Jersey.
Otherwise, you may end up in jail for a longer period. To learn more about criminal defense law, you could contact the team of the Law Office of Matthew V. Portella.
The criminal defense lawyers from this law office have good experience dealing with these cases. They will study your case and create strategies to save you from your charges. In New Jersey, indictable crimes are divided into 4 degrees. Read the following to learn about them.
- First-Degree Crimes: First-degree crimes are the most serious ones. Severe sexual assault, murder, kidnapping and armed robbery come under this.
- Second-degree crimes: Robbery, sexual assault and aggravated arson come under this.
- Third Degree Crimes: Burglary, drug possession and motor vehicle theft fall in this category.
- Fourth-degree crimes: Cyber harassment, stalking, forgery, aggravated assault and criminal trespass come under this category.
To know about the complete list of crimes that come under these categories, you must speak with a criminal defense lawyer. For first-degree crimes, jail time can range from 10 years to 20 years. For second-degree crimes, jail time can be anywhere from 5 to 10 years. For third-degree crimes, you will be in prison for around three years to 5 years. For fourth-degree crimes, you will be in prison for around 18 months.
When you contact the right criminal defense lawyer in New Jersey, they will lower the jail time as much as possible by using the knowledge related to their previous cases.
Hence, it is better to hire an experienced lawyer over a new lawyer for criminal offense cases. An experienced criminal lawyer lets you know what to do and what you cannot do further to save yourself from some serious punishments.
Follow what your criminal defense lawyer says. Otherwise, things may turn out more complicated. Speak everything clearly with your lawyer, and do not try to hide anything. The more precise you are, the better your lawyer can help you.
