California Criminal Defense, Explained

The first of the firm’s own charge pages: what VC 23152 carries, the early mistakes, the mitigation packet, and the elements and defenses — in both the client and counsel views.

New · built from the firm’s charge notes

Any willful, offensive touching — no injury needed. A misdemeanor on its own, and often very defensible, but the base of a family of far more serious charges.

New · built from the firm’s charge notes

A wobbler with strike exposure — what counts as a deadly weapon, what the People must prove, and where the 245 family escalates.

New · built from the firm’s charge notes

Which domestic-violence charge applies, what each carries, and the elements and defenses — in the client and counsel views.

New · built from the firm’s charge notes

A charge built on words alone — and a potential strike. The five things the People must prove, and the mistakes that make it worse early.

New · built from the firm’s charge notes

Which section is charged decides everything — carrying, possession or brandishing, charge by charge, with the litigation points for counsel.

New · built from the firm’s charge notes

Who can make the report, where it goes, and who decides whether it becomes a case. Most of what people believe about this process is borrowed from television, and the difference matters from the first phone call.

September 7, 2026 · 8 min read

Everyone half-remembers the 48-hour rule. Almost nobody knows about the clause that changes the answer depending on which day of the week the arrest happened.

August 30, 2026 · 8 min read

The honest version — what the first month looks like, what a first offense really carries, and the two deadlines that matter more than anything else.

July 28, 2026 · 6 min read

California gives you ten calendar days to save your license after a DUI arrest. Here's what that hearing is, what it isn't, and why it's worth requesting every single time.

July 28, 2026 · 5 min read

EPO, CPO, DVRO — the alphabet arrives fast and the consequences are immediate. What each order does, how they differ, and what can actually be changed.

July 28, 2026 · 7 min read

In California, the person named as the victim cannot drop a domestic violence case. Understanding who can — and what persuades them — changes everything about the first month.

July 28, 2026 · 6 min read

“Strike” is the scariest word in a California felony file. Here's precisely what it means, the arithmetic behind it, and the three separate ways it gets fought.

July 28, 2026 · 6 min read

It happens once, it happens early, and it's routinely waived by people who never learn what it was worth. Here's what a litigated prelim actually buys.

July 28, 2026 · 5 min read

California would rather route a simple possession case into treatment than into a conviction — but the door is narrow, it opens early, and nobody holds it open for you.

July 28, 2026 · 6 min read