Grand theft auto is a real crime, and in California it lives in two statutes: Penal Code § 487(d)(1) makes STEALING a vehicle grand theft automatically no minimum value a wobbler punish...
Robbery under Penal Code § 211 is the felonious taking of personal property from someone's body or immediate presence, against their will, accomplished by force or fear and it is always ...
Carrying a concealed firearm on your person or in your vehicle without a valid CCW permit violates Penal Code § 25400 a misdemeanor by default (up to 1 year in county jail and $1,000), ...
By the The Bulldog Law Criminal Defense Team • Reviewed by a licensed California criminal defense attorney Identity theft under Penal Code § 530.5 means willfully obtaining someone's personal identifying information and using it for ANY unlawful purpose without their consent and three featur...
Extortion under California Penal Code § 518 the crime most people call blackmail means obtaining money, property, or an official act from someone, with their consent, when that consent ...
By the The Bulldog Law Personal Injury Team • Reviewed by a licensed California personal injury attorney California gives you 2 years from the date of injury to file a personal injury lawsuit (Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1) but the deadline that ambushes people is much shorter: claims agai...
Penal Code § 1473.7 lets a person who is no longer in criminal custody move to vacate an old California conviction on the ground that they never meaningfully understood the immigration con...
By the The Bulldog Law Criminal Defense Team • Reviewed by a licensed California criminal defense attorney Robbery (Penal Code § 211) is taking property from a person from their body or immediate presence, against their will, using force or fear making it a violent felony that always counts ...
By the The Bulldog Law Criminal Defense Team • Reviewed by a licensed California criminal defense attorney A no contest (nolo contendere) plea and a guilty plea produce exactly the same result in your criminal case same conviction, same sentence, same criminal record with one real difference...
Larceny is the unlawful taking of someone else's property the crime California now simply calls theft (Penal Code §§ 484/487). Burglary is something different: entering a building or st...
By the The Bulldog Law Criminal Defense Team • Reviewed by a licensed California criminal defense attorney Rape under Penal Code § 261 is sexual intercourse accomplished against a person's will through force, fear, threats, or the victim's incapacity. Statutory rape under § 261.5 (formally “u...
By the The Bulldog Law Criminal Defense Team • Reviewed by a licensed California criminal defense attorney “Charged” means you have been formally accused of a crime by any lawful method most often a prosecutor filing a criminal complaint. “Indicted” means you were charged by one specific meth...
Airdrop Farming and Sybil Accusations can turn a crypto reward campaign into a serious legal dispute. A user may believe they earned tokens through legitimate activity, while a protocol may deny rewards after concluding that the user controlled multiple wallets, used bots, manipulated eligibility...
An arraignment is the first court appearance in a California criminal case: the judge formally states the charges against you, advises you of your constitutional rights, appoints or con...
A simple first-offense alcohol DUI generally will not get a non-citizen deported courts have held it is not a crime involving moral turpitude and it appears on none of the deportability lis...
A personal injury case is worth the sum of your economic damages medical bills, future care, lost wages, and lost earning capacity plus your non-economic damages for pain and suffering, a...
By the The Bulldog Law Personal Injury Team • Reviewed by a licensed California personal injury attorney • Most California personal injury cases settle within a few months to a year after medical treatment ends: straightforward claims with clear fault often resolve in 3 to 6 months after re...
By the The Bulldog Law Criminal Defense & Immigration Team • Reviewed by a licensed California attorney Five categories of crimes can get a non-citizen deported from the United States even a lawful permanent resident with a green card: (1) aggravated felonies, (2) crimes involving moral turp...
Senate Bill 1437 rewrote California's felony murder rule: since January 1, 2019, a person who did not kill, did not intend to kill, and was not a major participant acting with reckless indifference to human life can no longer be convicted of murder for a death that happened during a felony and Pe...
California's Clean Slate law Senate Bill 731, in effect since July 1, 2023 automatically seals most criminal records without a petition, a lawyer, or a fee: eligible misdemeanor convictions clear about one year after the case ends, most non-serious, non-violent felony convictions (including those...
In California, hiring a private criminal defense lawyer typically costs from about $1,500–$5,000 for a straightforward misdemeanor, $5,000–$25,000 or more for a felony, and $25,000 to well into six figures for serious felonies, federal cases, and jury trials with most attorneys charging either a ...
Jail and prison are different institutions: jail is run by the county (usually the sheriff) and holds people short-term those awaiting trial and those serving sentences of one year or less while prison is run by the state (the CDCR) and holds people serving felony sentences longer than a year aft...
No in California, the victim cannot drop criminal charges. Criminal cases are filed by the district attorney in the name of the People of the State of California, and once filed, only the prosecutor (or the court) can dismiss them even if the victim recants, refuses to cooperate, or begs for the ...
To find out if you have a warrant in California, check the superior court's online case search for the county where your case or ticket was, call the court clerk's criminal division, use the county sheriff's warrant lookup where one exists, request your own criminal record from the California DOJ...
California Penal Code § 851.91 lets anyone who was arrested but never convicted petition the court to seal the arrest and for most people it is granted as a matter of right, meaning the judge must sign the order. An arrest is not a conviction, but it still lives in your record: the booking, the f...