MISDEMEANOR CRIMES

Misdemeanors are crimes typically punishable by no more than one year in jail. Fines, probation and/or community service may be added as punishment. There can be collateral consequences such as driver's license revocation or professional license interference. There can be full or petty misdemeanors, but both are still considered criminal convictions.

While misdemeanors are considered less serious than felonies, they still can have a negative effect on a person's life when, for instance, an employer or landlord runs a background check.

PUNISHMENTS

Misdemeanor punishments are divided into classes that depend on the state. A punishment for petty theft could have a more lenient punishment than aggravated assault. However, the details of a case (e.g., prior convictions, probation) will have an effect on the punishment.

Crimes considered misdemeanors can include:

• DUI
• Shoplifting
• Vandalism
• Prostitution
• Reckless driving
• Drug possession
• Disorderly conduct
• Open alcohol containers
• Staying in a park at night
• Assault
• Abuse of a family or household member
• Terroristic threatening

A person sentenced to serve time as the result of a misdemeanor typically will go to a jail as opposed to a prison, as in felony cases. In some cases, a person will have the opportunity to serve time only on the weekends until the jail-time requirements are met.

Often times misdemeanor charges may have names that obscure the severity of the crime charged. Thus, although they might be charged as misdemeanors, your charge could be terroristic threatening, assault, abuse of a family or household member, or domestic violence assault even though the facts of your case might bring to your mind names like disorderly conduct, profane language, battery, unlawful or unwanted touching or a verbal marital argument. If you don't have an experienced attorney on your side, like Kevin O'Grady, you may have to live with that outlandishly named misdemeanor conviction.

Keep in mind also that the prosecutor, police officer or future employer will not view this conviction as just a minor event should you ever run into that person again. They will see it as a criminal conviction and imagine all the worst possible facts for the names associated with the criminal charge. Prosecutors will hold it against you even if you later have a speeding ticket. Legislators too consider this when naming the crimes and when they attach additional collateral penalties that might affect your professional license, driver's license, or ability to keep and bear arms or otherwise exercise your second amendment rights. In fact there is a specific federal law that specifically embraces ONLY misdemeanor convictions of a particular character, domestic violence, broadly defined, to forever extinguish your Second Amendment constitutional and fundamental right to keep and bear arms in defense of yourself, family and property.

Some misdemeanors cannot be expunged or set-aside. Even if a crime is designated as a misdemeanor, hire an experienced attorney to protect your good name and future.