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Arlington Drug Defense Strategies

If an individual is facing a drug-related charge in Virginia, that individual is going to be up against a lot of aggressive prosecution and a lot of aggressive investigation on the part of the police. For that reason, they need a skilled defense attorney who is just as aggressive to fight back.

Drug charges can be scary because they can have a considerable social stigma that will cause problems with potential employers and lenders. If arrested on drug charges, a person will want to do all they can to try to avoid or minimize the damage to their record, and contacting a skilled drug attorney who can begin developing a defense strategy for their offense is the first step.

Preparing a Robust Defense Against Drug Charges

The first step in any intake process when an Arlington lawyer is dealing with a new client or potential client and creating their defense is finding out what happened from their perspective. Did the police come with a warrant or did they just ask to do a search? How did it all start? Those are the first pieces of information that they need to know. Secondly, they will want to know whether there were any witnesses and what those witnesses saw.

An attorney might request witness statements or for their client to bring the witness to their office. Alternatively, they need a way to contact any witnesses so that they can get their statements and subpoena them later for court if necessary.

Mitigating the Damage

It is important for a drug attorney to examine their client’s drug case from top to bottom, including how the government found about the drug. For example, an attorney would investigate whether a search was involved and whether that search violated the terms of the Fourth Amendment.

An attorney would also investigate whether a statement was obtained after an intelligent involuntary weaver of the person’s right to remain silent in the Fifth Amendment, whether counsel was present during questioning if requested, whether there was a proper chain of custody on the drugs, and who did the laboratory analysis and whether that person is available to testify in court.

A million different drug defenses from an aggressive Arlington lawyer can potentially cause a prosecution’s case to fall apart. A skilled drug defense attorney who understands that their job is to hold the government’s feet to the fire every step of the way is effective to have in court.

Contact an Arlington Drug Lawyer

There is so much that a lawyer knows and can do in a drug case. When meeting with a potential lawyer, you should ask the lawyer these questions, including how many years they have done only criminal defense work. The only person who should hear about what happened after being charged with a drug offense is your lawyer.

You should never talk to the police until your lawyer has said it is a good idea to do so and is present for that conversation.

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