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This concept of prefiling has to do with you getting information that the police are investigating you.  Do you sit there and hope for the best?  Do you wait to see if the police come to talk to you?  Do you wait until they file a criminal case against you before you hire a criminal defense attorney? Having done...

I’ve been practicing now in San Fernando court for 30 years.  I started out working for the District Attorney’s office and then a Superior Court judge, and then in the early 1990s, I began defending people for DUIs just like you, handling cases in San Fernando court -- hundreds since the early 1990s...

I handle many cases in the LAX court in California because people, for one reason or another, are trying to board airplanes with guns, either in their luggage or mostly I see it in their carry-on luggage. There are all sorts of reasons why people bring guns on planes.  Most of the time, it’s because they screw up...

This issue of percentage of time served in jail for a criminal case in Los Angeles County is a big question that my clients ask me. Clearly, nobody wants to go to jail because it's a nasty place and the conditions inside the county jail are horrible. It's not supposed to be comfortable, it's alwa...

Will District Attorney's New Policies Protect You if You're Involved with a Gun Violence Case in Los Angeles? This is a good question because gun violence is on the rise.  It's all over the news that people are using weapons on the road with road rage, gang members are shooting people. People are...

One of the biggest problems for people is keeping their spirits up, keeping their faith up because they've lost control of their future once they're charged with a California criminal case. They could be facing jail or prison time, facing a criminal record, facing the loss of important...

I've been moving around in all of the Los Angeles criminal courts since the Coronavirus. The courthouses have only closed for one day. Otherwise, they've been open for a lot of different businesses.  As it currently stands, and on making this post in August 2021, we have a situation where the...

I definitely see an effect.  To a large degree, prosecutors have turned on the police now as well. Almost every day, I'm getting notices in the mail of police officers who have been convicted of California crimes and the prosecutors are turning that over. Further, there are also situations where police...

I've been defending attempted murder cases now for almost 30 years in the Los Angeles County courthouses, such as Van Nuys court, San Fernando court, and the other courthouses in the greater Los Angeles area and the San Fernando Valley. The best defense is someone who not only understands...

As many of you may not know, the Hedding Law Firm has been around since the 1970s when my father first started practicing. I later came along and I've been practicing now for the past 27 years.  I think the secret sauce is not only experienced but a well-rounded complete package-type experience...

How Will the Van Nuys District Attorney's Office Implement the New Los Angeles District Attorney's Policies? Right now, across Los Angeles county as the new year approaches, the new head Deputy District Attorney George Gascon has imposed a number of new crucial policies and there are prosecutors ...

Right now, because of the Coronavirus, the Supreme Court Justice of the California Supreme Court has ruled that all bail in Los Angeles county is zero.  There are some exceptions to this rule related to more serious cases like murder, sex crime cases, people who have strikes on their record. But ...

I had a case a number of years ago in downtown Los Angeles where my client was charged with murder.  He had been involved in a bar fight with another person and that other person actually waited outside for him and my client ended up stabbing him with a knife.  It was captured on video and there ...

I had a client once who was trying to drive to work and ended up getting in an accident with a motorcycle and the motorcycle driver died.  After a year-long investigation, prosecutors charged him with involuntary manslaughter under California Penal Code 192(b). He was looking at a criminal record...

This was one of the more interesting cases I've done in my career and I've been doing this a long time — 26 years.  I've worked for the DA's office, a Superior Court judge, and then since 1994 I've been a criminal defense attorney, only defending people who are charged with crimes. In this partic...

I tried a case where my client was accused of domestic violence against his wife.  She had called the police.  They came out and whatever they saw and heard, they ended up looking for my client and arresting him.  He wasn't home at the time. He had gone out with his son and when he came back the ...

A number of years ago, downtown Los Angeles was pretty much overloaded with cases.  I don't know whether it was just because there was a rash of crime or whether they just did not have an efficient system. I'm talking now about the main downtown courthouse — 210 West Temple.  I had a rape case do...

I had a client who was charged with California Health and Safety Code 11351 HS selling drugs.  She was involved with another co-defendant allegedly in selling the drugs.  She was arrested and she pretty much was adamant that she did not sell drugs to anybody.  She was not involved in selling drugs...

A number of years ago, I had a big California Penal Code 261 PC date rape case and my client was charged with doing something very serious and he was looking at both prison time, registering as a sex offender, and a host of other repercussions.  He was a student-athlete and obviously, he would...

A number of years ago, I represented an athlete at a major college who was accused of California Penal Code 261 PC date rape.  Obviously, I won't give all the specifics about it as to not reveal who it is. However, in the end, we were able to convince the police not even to file the case in the first place....

I represented a client who I liked a lot because he was a good guy and he was charged with a road rage-related offense based on an issue he had on a freeway with another driver.  The big dispute in the case was these guys ending up crashing into each other while they were mad at each other. One of ...

Years ago I had a case that I tried in the San Fernando courthouse of California Penal Code 245(a)(1) assault with a deadly weapon.  My client basically woke up and he was hallucinating, probably because he had taken drugs — a combination of drugs — and he believed that there was somebody in his...

I had a case where I was defending somebody charged with a California Penal Code 211 PC robbery at a particular store in the San Fernando Valley and I remember my client giving me kind of their version of events and then comparing that to the police report and just kind of scratching my head and...

I was trying a big California Penal Code 243(d) PC battery causing serious bodily injury case where my client was an Uber driver who ended up kicking passengers out of his car because they were trying to jam five passengers in a car that could not have five passengers. One of the passengers...

I had a case a number of years ago where my client was charged with California Penal Code 459 PC  residential burglary.  It was actually a pretty weak case against him but the prosecutors had filed it anyway.  Basically, whoever the burglar was had gone up to burglarize a house and apparently was...