The following is taken from an interveiw with VA child pornography lawyer Karin Riley Porter as she discusses how she approches child pornography cases. Call today for a free consultation.
Sometimes people don’t realize that possessing child pornography is an extremely serious offense. But if you find yourself in a situation where law enforcement either suspects you of downloading it, sharing, or possessing it then the best thing that a person can do is contact an experienced attorney to assist, because a lot of times these cases start out with search warrants done on a home and no immediate charges.
A lot of good things can be done on behalf of the client if they have a Virginia child pornography attorney representing them during that time period. It’s very crucial. Two big mistakes to avoid in these cases are:
When the search warrant is first issued it is a very important time because that’s when charging decisions are made. Also, the police are looking to collect more evidence and that could come with interviews.
If you retain counsel, then you can be advised on how to handle it when a police officer calls you. Sometimes, it’s not as easy as just asserting your right to remain silent because sometimes it’s difficult for people to actually do so. You need an attorney who is going to be proactive in asserting your constitutional rights and also starting a defense strategy. The quicker that you start laying down the foundation and a defense plan for these types of cases, the better off you’re going be.
It is critical to find the right attorney to fight your case if you’re charged with child pornography charges. These are life altering offenses and having an experienced attorney from the beginning of the process can be very beneficial to laying the grounds for a strong defense strategy.
You want to look for an attorney who has experience dealing with child pornography cases as well as dealing in the jurisdiction in which you are charged. You also want to make sure you have an attorney that you feel comfortable with, because you’re going to be working very closely with that lawyer. You’re going be talking about some potentially uncomfortable things, so you want to be able to trust that person, but to also be able to confide with them comfortably. Experience in the subject matter as well as the jurisdiction is very important.
You may also want to look for a law firm with a criminal defense team. One of the benefits is that two heads are always better than one.
In fact, in our case with our Virginia team, we have 5 attorneys that can help at any given time and that to me is a very valuable asset to have. Also, our firm has an in-house private investigator, which is very useful in most criminal cases, but specifically in these types of cases as well. We have a whole team already set up, which provides an advantage to clients charged with these types of offenses.
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