Few events are more stressful than the risk of losing the license you rely on for your livelihood and career.
Being injured is a crushing blow, not just to your body, but to your finances, your mental health, and
your overall well-being.
If you or your loved one is facing criminal charges, you need someone aggressive, persistent and skillful defending your rights.
There is no greater injustice in society than being wrongfully convicted or punished unfairly.
If you’re reading this, you know how stressful it is to have a relationship go extremely wrong.
Being a parent is a labor of love, and a thankless one. Few experiences are more crushing than facing the risk of losing your child or your right to be their parent.
If you are contemplating a lawsuit or have been threatened or served with one, you need a skilled and knowledgeable attorney to fight your cause.
Few things upend your life like an attack on your reputation.
Every parent’s worst nightmare is getting the call that your child has been arrested. What follows are sleepless nights filled with stressful questions.
Most people who call us are calling about a criminal charge, and most of them are calling within a day or two of an arrest. Each page below explains one charge type: what it means under Arizona law, what the realistic penalty range is, and what actually happens between now and your first court date. If you are not certain which one fits your situation, that is normal — the charging paperwork often does not say what people expect it to say.
For an overview of how a Maricopa County criminal case moves from arrest through resolution, start with Criminal Defense in Maricopa County.
Criminal charges are not the only thing that puts someone’s livelihood or family at risk. We also represent clients in administrative law and professional board matters, where a license is on the line; orders of protection and injunctions against harassment, which move fast and often overlap with a criminal case; juvenile delinquency proceedings; post-conviction relief and appeals; parental rights; business and civil litigation, including breach of contract; defamation; and personal injury and wrongful death.
Consultations are free and confidential. The earlier we are involved, the more options there usually are — before an interview, before a grand jury, before a plea deadline.
Start with the charging document if you have one. In Maricopa County that is usually a citation, a complaint, or an indictment, and it lists the statute number and the class of offense. The statute number is what actually controls, not the label an officer used at the scene. If the paperwork names a charge you see on this page, that page will explain it. If it names something you do not see here, or names several things at once, call and read it to us. We will tell you in plain language what it is and whether it is something we handle. That conversation is free and takes a few minutes.
Usually yes, and it matters that one firm sees the whole picture. Related matters are common in Arizona and they interact. A domestic violence charge and an order of protection often arrive together, and what happens at one hearing can be used in the other. A DUI arrest starts a criminal case and a separate MVD license case that run on two different tracks. A criminal charge against a nurse, a teacher, a contractor or a real estate agent can trigger a professional board investigation with its own timeline. Handled by separate lawyers who are not talking to each other, these cases can end up working against each other. Tell us everything that is pending, not just the piece that scares you most.
It is the opposite of too early. The period before charges are filed is where a lawyer has the most room to work, because nothing has been filed and no position has been locked in. If a detective has called you, if police have asked you to come in and talk, if a search warrant was served, or if you have heard that someone made a report about you, that is the moment to get counsel involved. You are not required to sit for an interview, and asking for a lawyer before you answer questions is the safest thing you can do. People talk themselves into charges far more often than they talk themselves out of them.
Yes. We take cases in every county in Arizona, and we handle federal matters in the District of Arizona. Most of our work is in Maricopa County simply because most of our clients are here, and being in these courthouses constantly means we know how a particular division actually runs and who is across the table. That familiarity is real and it matters. But it is not a boundary. If your case is in Pima, Pinal, Yavapai, Mohave, Coconino, Yuma or anywhere else in the state, call us. Arizona criminal law is the same statewide even though local practice is not, and we will tell you honestly what a case in that court involves.
Faster than most people expect, and the deadlines are not the same across these areas. The MVD side of a DUI runs on a clock that is separate from the criminal case, and missing it can cost you a license even if the criminal case goes well. An order of protection stays in effect unless it is challenged, and challenging it requires an affirmative request. Professional licensing boards set their own response deadlines, and a missed response can be treated as a default. Injury claims are limited by a statute of limitations, and claims against a government entity carry a much shorter notice requirement than claims against a private party. If any of that sounds like your situation, call before you spend the evening researching it.