Criminal Law & Civil Rights
Investigation, charging, court process, and the rights that constrain the state.
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Criminal Law & Civil Rights
The Right to Counsel: Appointment, Public Defenders, and Waiver
The right to a lawyer is not the right to a lawyer in every proceeding. Where it applies, how it is delivered, and what it takes to give it up are three different questions.
6 min readGuide -
Criminal Law & Civil Rights
Diversion and Deferred Adjudication: Eligibility, Conditions, and Dismissal
Diversion trades conditions now for a dismissal later. The trade is often worth making, but what a dismissal leaves behind is the part defendants learn about too late.
6 min readExplainer -
Criminal Law & Civil Rights
Police Property Seizures: Getting Personal Property and Vehicles Returned
The first question is not how to get property back but why it is being held. Evidence, forfeiture and impound each run on different rules, deadlines and paperwork.
7 min readGuide -
Criminal Law & Civil Rights
Restitution and Court Fines: Ability to Pay, Payment Plans, and Consequences
A sentence often includes three separate money obligations. They are imposed differently, waived differently, and enforced differently, and treating them as one bill is how people end up back in court.
6 min readGuide -
Criminal Law & Civil Rights
Occupational Licensing After a Conviction: Review Standards and Appeals
Licensing boards used to deny applications on a vague finding about character. A wave of state reform has narrowed that, and added a way to find out before you spend money on training.
7 min readAnalysis -
Criminal Law & Civil Rights
Arraignment and the First Court Appearance: What Actually Gets Decided
The first appearance often lasts a few minutes and shapes everything that follows. Four things get decided there, and guilt is not one of them.
6 min readExplainer -
Criminal Law & Civil Rights
Body-Worn Camera Footage and Police Records: Requesting and Obtaining Access
Footage is usually deleted on a schedule measured in weeks. Which request you file, and how fast you file it, matters more than how the request is worded.
6 min readGuide -
Criminal Law & Civil Rights
Section 1983 Claims: Suing State Actors and Qualified Immunity
Section 1983 is the vehicle for most constitutional claims against police, jailers and other state officials. Two doctrines decide most of these cases before a jury sees them.
7 min readAnalysis -
Criminal Law & Civil Rights
Voting Rights After a Conviction: Restoration Rules by Jurisdiction
Two states never take the vote away. Others restore it at release, at the end of supervision, or only through an individual act of clemency. Residence decides which rule applies.
6 min readExplainer -
Criminal Law & Civil Rights
Juvenile Court: Petitions, Adjudication, Disposition, and Sealing
Juvenile court runs on different vocabulary and a different purpose, but the due-process protections are real. Where the systems converge is in what the record does years later.
7 min readExplainer
