At the first stage after the commission of the offence
The complaint may be filed directly with any police station or gendarmerie brigade. It may also be drafted to be filed and sent to the public prosecutor by letter. Finally, in the absence of a response from the public prosecutor within three months, it may be brought before the senior investigating judge as part of a civil action, provided that the provisions of Article 85 of the Code of Criminal Procedure have been complied with. It is therefore necessary to pay particular attention to this procedural route.
The criminal lawyer will take care of drafting your complaint with the appropriate legal qualifications and providing all the elements necessary for its effective processing.
The firm will also advise you on compensation procedures with the various competent bodies, such as those relating to car accidents or common law offences.
Police custody, the first of the coercive measures.
Police custody is a key area of intervention for lawyers. Police custody is a period during which the rights of the defense must be respected because it is done prior to prosecution. It is during police custody that the incriminating and exonerating evidence is gathered by investigators. It is done under the authority of the police. It is therefore an extremely sensitive area in which the lawyer must intervene.
Police custody is a measure of deprivation of liberty taken by a judicial police officer to keep at his disposal a person suspected of a crime or an offence. It can last up to 48 hours for common law cases, 96 hours or even 120 hours for certain offences (drug trafficking and terrorism).
The rights of the person in custody are essential and are guaranteed by the lawyer: right to be examined by a doctor, right to have a relative notified, right to be assisted by a lawyer from the start as well as during hearings and confrontations, right during hearings to have to give one’s identity, to make statements, to respond or to remain silent.
What does the lawyer do at this stage?
Our firm intervenes urgently in police custody. It is appropriate to be designated, it being specified that this designation can be made by a member of the family of the person in police custody.
This perspective is all the more true since a recent reform, those in police custody may have the right to an interview with a member of their family.
The hearing then takes place immediately before the criminal court. The accused has the right to request a delay to prepare his defense and the court cannot oppose it. If he requests this delay, he will be argued on the guarantees of representation, that is to say what happens to the person during his
We are present alongside the person immediately in the interview at the courthouse deposit. Then at the hearing, we appreciate the opportunity to request an adjournment to collect the documents allowing to report the proof of innocence or to arrange the sentence and we ensure the criminal defense during the debates of the immediate appearance.
The assistance of a lawyer is mandatory in this type of appearance. This is an alternative method to the criminal trial decided by the public prosecutor after an arrest, a placement in police custody or an investigation. The person is given a summons to appear before the prosecutor’s delegate. The prosecutor’s delegate makes a sentence proposal. In return, the person waives his or her means of defense on the substance and form. He or she acknowledges the facts.
The person under investigation has the right to be assisted by a lawyer throughout the procedure. The lawyer has access to the file, can make requests for acts, requests to hear witnesses, to confront, to be transported to the scene to help establish the truth.
Our firm assists the person under investigation or assisted witness throughout the information phase as part of a precise follow-up on the steps to be taken with the investigating judge. At the end of the investigation, it takes a note for the purpose of dismissal in the event of innocence or raises possible nullity.
The sentencing judge is competent to arrange fixed prison sentences. When a person is incarcerated, he or she may make a request for an arrangement to the sentencing judge, who will set a hearing date to discuss a hearing in the context of an adversarial debate.
The adversarial debate allows the sentencing judge to examine the various points in order to reduce the sentence or arrange it in the form of semi-liberty or electronic bracelet or other alternative measure to the custodial sentence.
The incarcerated person may also appeal a judgment of a sentencing judge.
The Lawyer intervenes in this type of procedure by putting together serious character files allowing the trust of the sentencing judge to be gained in order to regain freedom or a semi-liberty measure allowing a favorable reintegration of the defendant.