Felony and Misdemeanor Defense-- 503.922.1923
Dan DiCicco is an experienced Oregon Criminal Defense lawyer who represents individuals charged with serious crimes in Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas Counties. He handles both misdemeanor and felony cases and has experience both as a prosecutor in Multnomah county and as a defense attorney all over Oregon.
This page specifically discusses felony and misdemeanor charges other than DUI. For DUI information, click the button on the left. Dan can be reached by cell at 503.724.7065.
1. Felonies and Misdemeanors in Oregon. -[top]
What is the difference between a felony and a misdemeanor in Oregon? Do I NEED a lawyer?
Getting charged with a crime is a major emotional and financial blow. We are here to do our absolute best to soften the impact that your charge will have on your life. The first thing you should do is take a deep breath, and relax. However serious your charge is, you are going to need to calmly approach this with a clear head and cool emotions. Even the least serious of criminal charges can be a major problem if it is not handled correctly. We are here to make sure that doesn't happen.
Misdemeanor crimes in Oregon are crimes that are punishable by less than one year in jail upon conviction. Typical charges we see are Assault IV, Harrassment (a sort of assault-lite), Criminal Mischief (breaking the property of another), Failure to Perform the Duties of a Driver (hit and run), and more. Misdemeanors range in seriousness from Class A being the most serious to Class B and Class C, which are less serious.
Felony Crimes are punishable by more than a year in prison. Class C felonies are the least serious of felonies, and these can often be resolved with probationary sentences and plea deals to misdemeanors. Class B and Class A Felonies are the real deal. Getting charged with these crimes typically means that the State is seeking to put a defendant in prison. In some cases, there are mandatory minimum sentencing laws that require very hefty prison sentences.
2. Lawyer Fees and Services-[top]
How much does a criminal lawyer cost? What does that get me?
No two criminal cases are exactly alike, and so it is difficult for us to give a full answer to this question without getting details from you. Generally speaking, our firm can resolve most misdemeanor charges for a flat fee of $3000, provided that we can avoid a trial. Most class C felony cases can be resolved for a $5000 flat fee. Class A or B felonies are impossible to predict, but generally the more serious the charge, the higher the fee.
A good criminal defense lawyer is never going to promise you that you will walk away from your charge unscathed. But he or she will tell you that they will fight tooth and nail for every inch of ground. We will discover the State's evidence and we will diligently pursue our own investigation of the facts. We will leverage our legal expertise to challenge the State's evidence with pre-trial motions. We will devise a plan to maximize our success in negotiations with the State. We will try your case to a judge or a jury, and if necessary, we will minimize the damage at the time of sentencing by making the best case to the court that we can.
That said, we are going to let you know when it is time to stand firm and fight and when it is time to admit guilt and minimize your losses. Our number one goal is to find the best possible path for you.
3. The Criminal Process-[top]
What is an arraignment? What is Bail? What is a grand jury?
If you are cited for a misdemeanor charge, then you likely received a ticket from the police officer with a court date on it. That court date is called your "arraignment." It is the date that the State will formally advise you of your official charges. In a typical misdemeanor case, the arraignment is mostly a formality and in many cases, it can be waived if the defendant has hired an attorney.
If you are cited for a felony case, then you were probably arrested first.If you are reading this, then the Court allowed your release on your own recognizance or you posted bail. To be released on your own recognizane (or "re-cogged") means that the Court believes you will show up at your next court date without further conditions or incentives. If the court requires bail, then you must "post bail" by paying it to the jail. However, confusingly, bail is always 10% of what the court orders. So if the court orders $50,000 in bail, then a defendant need only post $5,000 to bail out of jail. A family member or friend can pay your bail. If you show up for all of your court dates, you receive most of your bail money back at the end of the case.
Following the arraignment, misdemeanor charges typically proceed to a pre-trial conference of some sort where your lawyer has the opportunity to negotiate with the State and to inform the court of the status of the case. Cases can be postponed here or set for motions or trial, or they can be resolved by some other method like a plea.
For Felony cases, the State has to receive approval from a grand jury to formally proceed against you. For all intents and purposes, at least in our opinion, the grand jury is irrelevant. The requirement that the State seek an indictment from a grand jury is largely illusory, because the defendant is not permitted to argue his case to a grand jury. The State gets to present the evidence without any objections or cross-examinations. Generally, whatever outcome the State desires will occur, and the State generally desires to charge people with the crimes that they think they committed. This whole process of seeking an indictment from the grand jury will delay your case by several weeks or months as we go through the various procedural lawyers. To save time, many defendants simply waive the requirement that a jury indict them.
Once the indictment is returned from the grand jury (or waived), then the felony case will proceed to a pre-trial conference for the State and your lawyer to confer with the court over how the case will proceed.
This page is a work in progress and will be updated shortly with more information regarding felony and misdemeanor defense. In the meantime, please do not hesitate to call us with any questions you have about your case.