TL;DR Drivers who hit pedestrians in a crosswalk can face tickets, license penalties, lawsuits, and criminal charges. Liability depends on fault, and drivers may avoid consequences if the pedestrian caused the accident. At-fault drivers can be sued for medical bills, lost income, and pain and suffering. Serious injuries, DUI, or hit-and-run can lead to severe …
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) says that a normal work shift is no more than 8 consecutive hours in a day, with each shift split by at least 8 hours of rest. A normal workweek is 5 such work days.1 However, this is not binding. OSHA does not penalize employers who demand more. …
You commit the criminal offense of contributing to the delinquency of a minor when you: commit some act or fail to act in a certain way, and the action or inaction makes a child more prone to engage in illegal activities. Common examples include: allowing your 13-year-old son to stay out after curfew and he …
In California law, homicide is the killing of another human being while murder is an unlawful homicide with malice aforethought. Therefore, homicide is an umbrella term that includes all situations where someone gets killed. Murder is a type of homicide. This chart summarizes the differences between murder and homicide: Murder Homicide It is the killing …
Alcohol can remain on your breath for up to 12 to 24 hours after consuming your last drink.1 Keep in mind, however, that everyone’s body is different, and the absorption of alcohol and its detection will vary by body type. Note that alcohol on your breath, on its own, does not necessarily mean that you …
There is a subtle difference between the meaning of attorney and lawyer. You are a “lawyer” if you graduate from law school. You then become an “attorney” if you pass the bar exam and enter the State Bar Association for the state in which you practice law. If a lawyer does not go on to …
Prank calling can be illegal in some situations. While each state is different, most states prohibit making prank calls to annoy or harass someone. All states make it illegal to prank call 911. Recording a prank call can constitute illegal wiretapping in many states, including in California. Annoying or harassing someone because of a protected …
In California criminal trials, a hung jury is when the jurors cannot reach a unanimous agreement as to the verdict. All jurors have to agree on guilt or innocence to render a trial complete. (Hung juries can also occur in civil trials such as for personal injury, though only three-fourths of jurors in a civil …
You may have just gotten arrested for shoplifting and are nervous about the consequences. While you may be facing misdemeanor charges, a criminal conviction is not necessarily inevitable. There are five effective ways to fight a shoplifting case. These are: enter an informal diversion program, agree to a civil compromise, assert that you had no …
An arraignment is typically the first court hearing, or a defendant’s first appearance in court, in a criminal case and it marks one of the initial stages in the pretrial process. During the hearing, the judge will inform the defendant of the charges filed against him or her and will ask how the accused pleads …
In California, police code 211 is for a robbery or armed robbery, which is covered by California Penal Code section 211. There are also police codes for robbery alarms. Code 211A is for when a normal robbery alarm has been reported. Code 211S is for a silent robbery alarm. What is robbery in California? The …
Some examples of misdemeanors include assault, shoplifting, and petty theft. These are all criminal offenses that are more severe than an infraction, but less severe than a felony. Misdemeanors carry up to 1 year in county jail and $1,000 in fines. What are some examples of misdemeanor crimes? Some common examples of misdemeanor crimes in …
In California, domestic violence is generally charged as a misdemeanor rather than a felony unless the incident caused an injury. California has no single domestic violence law. Instead, there are a handful of different laws. Two of the most common domestic violence crimes are: Domestic Battery, which is always a misdemeanor; and Corporal Injury on …
A motion to quash a warrant is a request for a court to find a warrant, or part of a warrant, to be invalid. “Quash” means to nullify, void or declare invalid. If a search warrant of your property is quashed, evidence found through the defective warrant can be suppressed or thrown out of court. …
Taking back (“recanting”) your domestic violence statement will not automatically cause the criminal case to be dropped – especially if prosecutors have other evidence that abuse occurred. Plus, the police may then arrest you for giving false statements, obstructing justice, perjury, or even contempt if you fail to show up to trial. To reduce the …
Most states say that you are guilty of the crime of conspiracy to commit murder if: you agree with one or more other people to intentionally and unlawfully kill someone, and at least one of the persons involved commits some act to further the agreement. Depending on your case, you may face the same penalties …
Advantages of Waiving a Preliminary Hearing Pros of waiving your right to a preliminary hearing include to: avoid preserving testimony by hostile witnesses that could later be used at trial, stall the examination of state witnesses in the hopes they will be unavailable to testify at trial (perhaps because they are sick or will be …
Attempted murder is a serious felony that, depending on the facts of your case and the state in which your crime took place, could result in a sentence of life in prison. Like it sounds, an attempted murder is trying – and failing – to kill a human being. Note that if the victim dies …
An arraignment is the first formal court proceeding in a criminal case. For felony charges, an arraignment must generally occur within 48 hours of your arrest if you are held in custody. If you are not kept in custody, then the proceeding must typically take place “without unnecessary delay.” In terms of a trial date, …
Registered sex offenders are generally free to obtain a passport and travel internationally. That said, there may be restrictions as to where they can go. While U.S. law does not forbid them from traveling out of the country, other countries may restrict registered sex offenders from entering once customs agents see the “sex offender” identifier …
A felony arraignment hearing is normally the first formal court appearance in criminal cases where you are charged with a felony offense. At the arraignment, the court will inform you of the crime(s) filed against you, advise you as to your constitutional rights, address issues of bail and release from custody, and accept a plea …
You will likely face more severe DUI penalties if you drive drunk and contribute to a car accident (as opposed to if you drive while intoxicated and avoid a collision). DUI penalties will also likely grow more severe if you help cause a DUI accident and the accident results in someone getting injured or killed. …
You are under no lawful obligation to sign a severance (also called a separation) agreement. Five examples of when you may not want to do so are when: you intend to sue your employer after your termination, the severance package is not sufficient, you do not have legal representation, it would unduly restrict your professional …
After a violation of felony probation in California, there are three things that can happen. The judge can: reinstate probation under the original terms, modify the terms of probation to make them stricter, or revoke probation and send you to prison to serve the rest of your sentence. California judges at the probation violation …
Specific intent crimes are misdemeanors or felonies where a prosecutor must prove (and beyond a reasonable doubt) that you intended to commit a certain harm. This means a specific intent is a necessary element of the crime itself. Examples of specific intent crimes are: burglary, forgery, and robbery. In contrast, general intent crimes are offenses …
