Maine Criminal Defense Legal Questions

Your brother can go back to court to argue bail to a different judge. If one judge (or a bail commissioner) set his bail so high that he cannot afford it, then he has the right to go back to court and argue to a different judge for a lower bail. He would have to file a petition for redetermination of bail. If that doesn't result in a bail he can afford, then he could appeal the decision, but that is a complicated and difficult process. In the event that he is being held without bail, then the time to make his bail argument is during the hearing on the state's motion to revoke bail, if it has not already happened.... Read More

You can appeal, but you need a lawyer and you have to do it in 30 days. You can file a PCRA within one year. You also need a lawyer for that. Once you plead guilty it is really hard to challenge on appeal as the court probably asked you a million questions to make sure you understodd what you were doing and you probably said yes to all of them. You mention "deferred disposition". They dont call it that in my county but that usually means as long as you don't get in trouble until you come back to court, the charge is withdrawn. I would ask the lawyer or anyone you can if that is what you received . IF it is, you may just want to forget about appealing and just behave for one year. ... Read More

A lawyer is bound by the same attorney-client privilege and duty of confidentiality to a juvenile client as to an adult client. It does not matter who pays the fee. It does not matter that the legal consultation was at the behest of the parents. Whatever a person divulges to his or her attorney is confidential and between the two of them. The lawyer's obligation is to the client whose representation he or she has undertaken. Ethical rules prevent the lawyer from sharing that information absent the consent of the client. The lawyer for a juvenile is obligated to safeguard the juvenile's information and secrets from parents and guardians. Interviews should be conducted outside the presence of the parents. The lawyer should make this clear to parents who retain his or her services for their child. It's also a good idea to ask the parents to refrain from asking the child details about the interview because it could compromise the attorney-client privilege. A client can waive the attorney-client privilege and authorize disclosures to third parties. But that carries a risk -- the prosecutor could then call the third party to the stand to testify about the statements made to the lawyer. There is no parent-child privilege like there is a privilege between spouses. Parents also have no right to inspect the files of their child's lawyer or review his or her notes or discovery without their child's expressed consent.... Read More

A person who submits a false application for a bank loan can be facing federal fraud charges. The government would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant knowingly made a materially false statement to a federally insured bank for the purpose of influencing the bank's action. The maximum penalty for this offense is 30 years in prison and/or a fine up to one million dollars. However, the actual sentence would depend on the federal sentencing guidelines. For this type of offense, the sentence would depend upon the amount of actual or intended loss to the bank. It is not necessary for the bank to actually grant the loan for a person to be convicted. The crime only requires that the applicant act with intent to influence the bank's action -- it does not require either reliance by the bank officers on the false statements or actual defrauding. ... Read More