Criminal Defense

If convicted of voluntary manslaughter in Virginia, you could face up to 10 years in prison. If charged, you need to consider the defenses available to you. What does voluntary manslaughter mean? If you kill someone, the law has to decide why and how you killed them....

For most adults, owning a firearm is a basic constitutional right. However, states around the country have placed certain rules or restrictions on the ownership, use and carrying of certain firearms. A common rule involves the requirement to secure a permit for the...

One of the most important questions that you can ask a police officer who has stopped you is whether or not you are free to go. Their answer helps dictate where the conversation is going to go, as well.  If the police are detaining you or arresting you, they have to...

With many drug crimes, the root of the problem is actually a medical condition known as addiction. Someone who gets hooked on painkillers may know that it’s illegal to keep buying them and abusing them, but they can’t stop without medical intervention, no matter how...

Someone you know or work with did something illegal or deeply unethical, and you were either a witness or somehow wound up with evidence of what occurred. Most people in this situation will do the right thing and go to the police with the evidence they have or to...

There are dozens of crimes that college students may commit knowingly or unknowingly. As a parent who has a college-aged child, it may worry you that they will get in over their head and end up causing serious damage to their reputation. A charge and conviction during...

Every Virginian has seen it at least once in movies or TV shows: Police arrest a suspect, read them their Miranda rights and later take them to a tiny, windowless room down at the station for a lengthy interrogation. When you’re suspected of a felony, the situation...

When you find out that the state of Virginia intends to charge you with a crime, it is common to feel panicked. After all, prosecutors typically don't move forward with criminal charges unless they already believe they can likely win the case in court. When you know...

The warrant that the police get to search your home is based on their suspicions that you committed a certain crime. They need probable cause for the search, and the judge only issues a warrant if there is reason to do so. The warrant must also state what evidence...

If you take someone else's property without their permission, it’s always a crime -- but the terms “theft, burglary and robbery” each have distinct meanings under the law. Ordinary theft, or “larceny” in Virginia, is the most basic crime of the three. It basically...