How a Criminal Attorney Can Help With Your Harassment Charge

Criminal harassment is a serious criminal charge with serious consequences. If you have been accused of criminal harassment, a criminal defense attorney is the first person you should call.

Strategy becomes especially important in defending a criminal harassment case. Your attorney will assess the case and give you the best advice. It can mean the difference between having a criminal record and having a clean slate.

How a Criminal Defense Attorney Will Help You

To prove guilt in a felony or misdemeanor harassment case, the prosecution must prove that you:

• Used words or actions
• To convey threats or intimidation toward another person
• Those words or actions were unwarranted and unsolicited
• Your words and actions caused inconvenience, fear, or significant emotional distress.

It will be your criminal defense lawyer’s job to disprove any or all of those four elements of the crime.

A criminal defense attorney will help in your harassment defense in several ways. They include:

• Explain and guide: Your attorney will explain the charges against you. They will review the evidence the prosecution has and assess the strength of the prosecution’s case. They will offer valuable guidance on what to expect and how to proceed from the beginning. A harassment attorney will know the harassment statutes and how courts typically interpret them.
• Prepare a defense strategy: Your attorney will work with you to develop a strong defense strategy. Your attorney will gather their own evidence, interview witnesses, and build defenses to the prosecution’s allegations. This is especially important in a harassment case because so much of the evidence will likely be witness testimony. It will be important to gather this testimony and this evidence and gauge the credibility of these witnesses early.
• Communicate: Your attorney will communicate with the prosecution on your behalf. This will reduce the stress you are under as you defend against the harassment charge.
• Protect your rights: Just like any criminal case, the processes and procedures governing the case as it moves toward trial are important. Your attorney will ensure that your rights are protected throughout this process and make sure you receive the constitutional protections you are guaranteed.
• Negotiate: Depending on the seriousness of the charges, the strength of your defense, and the strength of the prosecution’s case, your attorney may decide that negotiating a plea agreement with the prosecution is the best course of action. A plea agreement can reduce your charges or sentence in exchange for a guilty plea.
• Defend you at trial: If your case goes to trial, your attorney will represent you, call and question witnesses, and argue your case to the judge or jury. An attorney with experience in harassment cases will know how to question an alleged victim without coming across as insensitive.
• Challenge evidence: An effective criminal defense lawyer will challenge the evidence against you and try to get it excluded from trial. For example, if law enforcement searched your computer without a warrant, any evidence they found might be inadmissible. But this doesn’t happen automatically. An effective trial lawyer can also structure questions to erode a witness’s credibility.
• Argue defenses: One of the elements of harassment is intent. A criminal defense attorney can argue that you did not have the intent to harass the victim and that your actions were protected by the First Amendment. An attorney may discover other defenses relevant to your unique case.
• Mitigate: If you are convicted of harassment, a criminal defense attorney can identify things that may justify a lighter sentence or less jail time. They will then argue these to the judge at sentencing. Such things like your having no criminal record or that you were in an extremely agitated state could be mitigating factors.

Tips for Your Harassment Case

Here are some additional things to keep in mind if you have been charged with harassment:

• Do not text, call, contact, speak to, or interact with the alleged victim. This could be considered a violation of the terms of your release or a restraining order.
• Do not talk to the prosecution or the police without an attorney present.
• Do not wait to collect any evidence that may be helpful to your defense, such as witness statements, emails, logs of phone calls, or text messages.
• Cooperate with your attorney and follow their instructions.

What To Look for in a Defense Attorney

When choosing a criminal defense attorney, it is important to consider the following factors:

• Look for an attorney who has experience defending people in criminal harassment cases.
• Make sure the attorney is licensed to practice law in your jurisdiction and is a member of the state bar association.
• Interview multiple attorneys. Choose an attorney who you feel comfortable communicating with and who will keep you informed of the status of your case.
• Discuss the attorney’s fees upfront and make sure you understand how they are calculated.

Even if you are innocent of the charges against you, it is important to have an experienced criminal defense attorney at your side in a harassment case. The prosecution will have a team of experienced lawyers working against you, and you need to have someone on your side who can protect your rights and fight for your best interests to receive the best possible outcome.