Drug crimes are one of the most common types of crimes in the criminal justice system. With the rise of drug usage and crimes related to drugs, the State of California severely punishes those that are convicted of drug related offenses. If you have been charged with a drug crime, you need an attorney that knows how to immediately prepare for the prosecution’s accusations. Call Hepburn, Hernandez and Jung Trial Attorneys to begin investigating the alleged crime and to start preparing for your defense today.

You Need an Experienced Trial Attorney

In order for the prosecution to convict a defendant for a crime, they will need to collect evidence from witnesses and police officers. Generally, in drug related offenses, witnesses are unreliable and the physical evidence can be weak. You need an experienced trial attorney that has dealt with a drug case from the inception of the case all the way to the end of a jury trial. An experienced trial attorney will know how jurors react to certain cases and what type of evidence the prosecution needs in order to ultimately convict a defendant. This type of experience gives a trial attorney valuable knowledge about what consists of a good and bad case. The attorneys at Hepburn, Hernandez and Jung have been through this process hundreds of times. Each attorney at HHJ Trial Attorneys will be able to tell you the weaknesses in the prosecution’s case and what steps to take to effectively defend your case. Ultimately, you will need to know how to either resolve your case before trial or how to fight for your freedom at trial. HHJ Trial Attorneys will help you receive the best outcome in your drug case so that you can move on with your life.

Attorneys That Negotiate Great Results

Around ninety-five percent of criminal cases settle before trial. This means that around ninety-five percent of the criminal cases result in some sort of guilty plea or dismissal. Only around five percent of criminal cases end up going to trial. Once a criminal case is filed, the prosecutor will try to get the defendant to take a plea deal. It will be up to the client’s defense attorney to effectively advocate for his/her client so that the prosecutor gives a good plea deal. The defense attorney has to show the prosecutor and the judge why the defendant deserves a good plea deal or why the case should be dismissed. HHJ Trial Attorneys has settled thousands of criminal cases before trial. HHJ has the expertise in knowing what a case is worth and if the client should take a plea deal or if the case is worth taking to trial. HHJ has years of experience effectively creating plea deals that the client and the district attorney feel comfortable accepting. However, sometimes settlement is not an option because the client is innocent or the offer is not worth accepting. In that situation, the attorneys at HHJ Trial Attorneys know exactly how to litigate the case in a jury trial.

Common Drug Crimes

One of the most common drug charges is possession of a controlled substance. However, there is a laundry list of other drug crimes that the attorneys at Hepburn, Hernandez, and Jung have successfully defended in the past. Each type of drug crime carries a variety of different punishments. Although this is not a complete list of drug crimes that HHJ Trial Attorneys have defended against, these are some of the most common types of drug crimes prosecutors tend to charge:

Drug Trafficking

Drug trafficking is one of the most severely punished crimes of any drug offense. While some people may view a drug crime as a victimless crime, the State of California views drug trafficking as a direct contributor to violent crime. Because drug trafficking can have the potential of affecting so many different people in the community and because many crimes have some involvement with drug possession or drug use, a person convicted of drug trafficking can be facing many years in prison.

Drug trafficking crimes can be pursued by either the state or federal prosecutor’s office depending on certain circumstances of the case. Federal sentencing guidelines can be much more severe than state guidelines, so it is generally better for a defendant to be charged in state court than in federal court. It is up to the prosecuting agency to decide when and where the criminal charges are being brought forward. Whether it is a state or federal case, Hepburn, Hernandez, and Jung Trial Attorneys has the skill to defend any drug trafficking case. HHJ knows how to effectively investigate a case and how to forcefully bring forward pretrial motions to potentially stop the case at an early stage based on a government agency’s potentially unlawful action. Did the law enforcement agency stop you illegally? Did they search you or your car without a valid reason? Did the government agency not have a warrant or did they obtain the warrant without sufficient cause? Were you threatened or forced to traffic drugs? Did you even know that drugs were in your possession? These are all some of the questions that HHJ Trial Attorneys will help you get answered so that you can defend yourself against the prosecution’s serious accusations.

In a drug trafficking case, the prosecution does not have to prove that you knew how much drugs you were carrying at the time that you were stopped by law enforcement. They also do not have to prove that you knew what type of drug you were carrying. The only thing the prosecution has to prove is that there were drugs in your vehicle and that you knew there were drugs in the vehicle. The unfortunate thing about this law is that your punishment for a drug trafficking case various significantly based on the amount of drugs that were in your possession. The sentencing guidelines mandate that the court sentence you to an additional prison sentence (for example, 5 years, 10 years, or 15 years) depending on how much drugs were in your possession. These serious consequences make it imperative that you hire an experienced trial attorney who will be able to defend you in your drug trafficking case. The attorneys at Hepburn, Hernandez and Jung have dealt with a variety of different drug trafficking cases and know how to fight the prosecution before and during trial.

Drug Possession and Drug Sales

The attorneys at Hepburn, Hernandez, and Jung Trial Attorneys have defended against hundreds of charges of drug possession, drug sales, and drug transportation. Previously, depending on the type of drug a person possessed, the prosecution could charge a defendant with either a misdemeanor offense or a felony offense. A misdemeanor offense carries the potential maximum punishment of up to one year in local jail. However, a felony conviction carries a potential prison sentence. Due to a recent change in the law, the State of California made all simple drug possession offenses into a misdemeanor offense. Unfortunately, even misdemeanor drug convictions can affect a person’s future in a variety of ways. Hepburn, Hernandez, and Jung Trial Attorneys can help you defend against a drug possession charge and help you avoid any sort of jail time normally associated with a drug conviction. If you do have to receive a conviction, HHJ Trial Attorneys can help you get your record expunged so that you can move on with your life without the tainted record of a drug possession offense.

Here is a list of some of the drug possession offenses you could be charged with:

Unlike simple misdemeanor drug possession charges, selling or furnishing drugs is considered a felony offense. Because California passed a law making many former felony drug offenses into misdemeanor offenses, prosecuting agencies change how they file drug charges against defendants. Prosecuting agencies have begun charging more people with felony drug sales instead of simple possession because they know drug sales is still considered a felony and carries a more severe felony sentence. For example, the attorneys at Hepburn, Hernandez, and Jung Trial Attorneys have seen prosecuting agencies charge a person with drug sales simply because they were carrying a scale or had more than three baggies on their possession. HHJ Trial Attorneys will not stand for this and will fight aggressively on your behalf. The prosecuting agency should only charge a defendant for what the evidence supports and not charge a defendant with a multitude of inappropriate crimes so that they can try to negotiate the case and reduce charges at a later time.

Here is a list of some of the drug sales charges you could be charged with: