Crime Pays

Crime Pays....

What is Criminal Law?
Criminal Law is the name given to the branch of law that governs an individual's relationship to the state. It includes the definitions of criminal offenses, which are usually established by Congress or state legislatures.
The term "criminal law" also encompasses the rights of an accused and the criminal process, including arrest, arraignment, grand juries, pleas, discovery, pretrial hearings, trials, jury selection, evidence, motions, and post-trial remedies.
The main purpose of the criminal law is to set forth the punishment for criminal offenses. In order to prove any crime, no matter how serious, the prosecutor must prove that the accused committed a guilty act with a guilty mind beyond a reasonable doubt.

Money matters

The most you can get from a client is what he can afford to pay you.
If you are tapped into a network of clients making serious money committing crimes you can make a lot of money in criminal law.
However, there is not big money in criminal work for most attorneys because most people arrested for crimes don't have the disposable income to pay attorneys.
A simple rule of thumb in criminal law is to get paid up front before you enter your appearance in the case.

Crime areas that can pay off
Cases involving money for a criminal lawyer would be:

•    DUI (Driving under inference)
•    Illegal substances
•    Corruption
•    Cyber Crime
•    Corporate criminality and fraud
•    money laundering
•    environmental issues
•    economic and extortion

The most lucrative cases were drug cases where the client can afford to pay big money, where the stakes are high and the client can afford high fees.
This leads to cases with clients either of corporate type or wealthy individuals.

Attention - You need Attention!

You need to attract attention to your person and capabilities to solve these types of cases. Therefore you need cases that are high profile in media. This of course will come on expense of your private life.
You will no longer be able to live a "private" life as your demand for high profile cases which will have the potential to generate cash, will demand your exposure to media in most cases controversial areas.
You will attract both positive and negative attention given this fact. Therefore you will need to think on how to maintain the personal sphere and security.

Marketing is an important strategy to get paid

Set up your online community about Crime law in your district, region or even country. This will become a resource read by many readers, both interested in Crime Law, but also people seeking advice within this area.
You can also combine this community with  a short bi-weekly Crime Law Newsletter where you actively talk about recent cases you or your colleges have been working with.
It also can cover law aspects within Crime, and what is worth knowing.
Get your name in famous Crime law blogs around the internet. These websites like allexperts.com and ezine.com are possible options in this case.
Utilizing the social network on the web is also needed in order to get your name known in this area of law. Use of Facebook, linkedin.com and ecademy.com would be advantageous.

Virtuality is Reality

As i mentioned that cyber crimes could be a lucrative area of law, we see that real life criminal law is applicable on virtual activities when those activities break through the expectations participants and developers are legitimately allowed to have.
Even though criminal law can be applied to virtual criminal behavior, the question remains whether it is expedient to use criminal law and to prosecute virtual world participants.
The answer to this question can, without empirical data, only be a political one and is therefore left open in the end.

Criminal and Civil Law

The area of criminal law is ever-expanding and increasingly making inroads into previously civil law matters. This complicate some cases and needs understanding of both areas in order to give the client an optimal service and results.
Therefore your knowledge and depth into both areas should be expected by the client.


Networking

When it comes to the basics, you need to have a network of people with some influence within the area you practice, there is no way around this. Regardless of how clean or corrupt the system you are working within, knowledge of the players in the field is helpful and needed.
You might ask why, and the answer is simple - you gain trust through knowledge, when you have trust you will have respect, and finally having the respect - people will listen to your arguments and your cases will get the attention needed to get the high profile cases you need.

And finally

You must be a master of procedural code, to demonstrate unbelievable word and procedural juggling
Judges and Jury's pay attention to the way you present the case, what cases you led before, the outcome and publicity of the proceedings


Selected References

Making Crime Pay: The Writer's Guide to Criminal Law, Evidence, and Procedure, 2002, Andrea Campbell
Howdunit series: How Crimes Are Committed and Solved, 2000, Writer's Digest Books
Virtual criminal law in boundless new environments, 2007, Bart J.V. Keupink
Reforming the Criminal Law of Corruption, 2000, Peter Alldridge
http://www.legislationline.org/documents/section/criminal-codes
http://www.hg.org/law-firms/Criminal-Law
http://criminal.lawyers.com/