Get Help With An Indictment | The Defenders Criminal Defense Attorneys

What Is It To Be Indicted?

Most people will never see the inside of a courtroom or learn about the criminal court system unless they are called for jury duty or even watch a lot of crime television.

But being indicted is no TV drama.

It is extremely serious and can have an adverse effect on the rest of your life.

Being indicted means that you and your case, whatever it is, has been reviewed by a grand jury and they have decided that there is enough evidence to send your case to trial where your guilt or innocence will be determined.

Sometimes a grand jury is convened in secret depending on the severity of the crime.

Grand juries are always one sided; only the prosecutors present evidence to a grand jury.

The prosecutors lay out all the evidence they have to try and convince the grand jury to indict a defendant and send their case to trial.

If you are indicted of a crime and your case is sent to trial, then the first thing you need to do is hire an experienced defense team.

If you live in Reno, Sparks, or Las Vegas Nevada and are indicted in Clark County you need to call The Defenders, a Richard Harris law firm, to defend your case.

We have free case reviews and are available anytime.

What is a Grand Jury

Basically a grand jury is a group of twelve people randomly picked out of the jury pool to only hear evidence put on by the prosecutors to determine whether or not a case goes to trial.

Grand Jurors don’t only serve one case review they may serve anywhere from one month to a year defending the state.

Grand Juries are usually held without public attendance in secret for the most serious of cases.

Regular juries on the other hand hear only one case and decide guilt or innocence of the defendant after hearing all the evidence.

Jurors in a regular case only hear evidence on the local and state level in contrast grand juries may serve the federal court system if called.

In regular cases the court is open to the public, grand juries are held in secret without the defense or defendant.

But a grand jury is not the only way a case is brought to trail.

If you receive an indictment from a grand jury and need assistance, call The Defenders right away.

Both juries, a grand jury and a petite or regular jury are all picked the same way.

Juries are randomly picked using DMV information.

Once you are sent a jury summons you must appear or a summons can be issued for non appearance.

So getting a grand jury summons versus a regular jury summons are just as likely since the process is random.

Arraignment Verse an Indictment

There is more than one way to end up at trial for a criminal or civil case.

For criminal cases other than a grand jury indictment, a prosecutor can present evidence called information to the court at an arraignment.

The arraignment is set after an arrest for a crime and usually has a time frame attached to it for example if you are arrested for a serious crime such as a felony the court has 3 days to set an arraignment excluding weekends and holidays in Nevada this is only if you’re in police custody.

If you have been released from an arraignment maybe weeks later.

Either way an arraignment is when information is presented to the court and the defendant must answer to the charges.

The judge will then decide whether or not the case is going to trial or not and if you are in jail whether or not you get bail.

In some cases a date is set for a bail hearing at a later time.

An indictment is different because the defendant is not there to answer to the charges in a grand jury proceeding.

You are notified by either being arrested if it is a serious crime, or if not you will be served by a court processor and served a summons to appear in court.

When your court date approaches you will be arraigned but the court is already going to trial with your case.

You should always hire a defense team with years of experience to handle your case.

Never attend any court proceedings alone and try to represent yourself or get a court appointed attorney.

Sometimes a court appointed attorney can even do more harm than good since they are swamped with all the other cases they have.

A good defense team like The Defenders only has a few clients at a time so we can spend time and effort on your case to either reduce the crime to a plea or get it dismissed all together with the right evidence.

What Happens When You’re Indicted

As many people may know most court proceedings are public information.

If you want you can even check if a person is in jail even if you have never met them.

So all information is public on the county court website.

So if you are indicted it becomes public information.

This information even though you haven’t been convicted of anything yet can affect everything in your life including employment, immigration status, ability to rent or buy a home, even something like dating can be affected since people can google your name and that public information may show up.

So once you are indicted by a grand jury or by information to the court the first thing you need to do is hire a smart defense team that has roots in the city you have been indicted in.

If you’ve been indicted in Nevada, call Richard Harris’ defense team The Defenders.

The Defenders has a team of extremely experienced attorneys that can represent you in any criminal case no matter how small.

The Defenders can accompany you to any police questioning, during any police questioning or proceeding you should always have an attorney with you.

Do not answer any questions without an attorney and that is a right if questioned by the police. The Defenders can investigate and interview witnesses or gather evidence to defend your case.

We have investigators on staff who can work with the police.

We can get court proceedings and records sealed if needed to protect both the defendant and the victims if needed.

Also after a conviction if a certain time passes and it is agreed upon by the court a defendant’s records can be sealed to protect the defendant in the future.