Mission Hills Criminal Defense Attorney
Mission Hills is an affluent residential community overlooking Mission Beach, Mission Valley, Presidio Park, Old Town, Downtown and San Diego Bay. Monder Law Group is centrally located in the heart of Downtown San Diego, with our close proximity to Mission Hills, we have established a long-standing working relationship in this community. If you live in Mission Hills and are under a criminal investigation or have already received a criminal complaint against you, you need a criminal defense firm whose services are conveniently accessible to you. At Monder Law Group, our office is only a fifteen minute drive from Mission Hills and our legal team of experts are available to meet with you any day of the week or to speak with you immediately over the phone at (619)405-0063.
The Free Initial Consultation
At Monder Law Group we believe that trust is the foundation of our criminal defense firm. That is why we strive to build trust with our clients from our very first interaction. We understand that trust must be earned, so whether it is a free consultation over the phone or in person, we prepare for our initial consultation by thoroughly researching your charges and looking into any prior criminal history you have in order to be able to give you a better idea of what you can expect at your arraignment. During your consultation, we explain to you the significance of your charges and/or criminal history, provide viable defense strategies, and answer any concerns that you may have. At this point of the attorney-client communication it is crucial that your statements be open and honest with no exceptions. In order to anticipate the weaknesses in your statements and be able to identify the strengths in your story, we must ask you to speak candidly and allow our legal experts to be critical listeners. At Monder Law Group, we know that there are two sides to every story and our sole purpose of representation is to give you an opportunity to tell your side!
The Retainer Agreement
Once we decide to take your case, we will provide you with our retainer agreement. Together we will review the terms of the agreement, clearly delineating the obligations of the attorney and the client. If you agree with the legal services that will be provided, you will be required to pay a retainer to induce attorney Vik Monder to become the attorney of record in your case. When retaining a criminal defense attorney, we understand how important it is for you to know exactly who is going to be representing you. Unlike most criminal defense firms, at Monder Law Group, you do not have to worry about having a different appearance attorney at every hearing. We strongly believe that effective representation requires the same attorney to be present at every stage of the criminal justice process. Our terms of representation are clear, you retain attorney Vik Monder’s legal services, we will honor our agreement and have attorney Vik Monder present at all the court appearances in your case. After all, we realize the immense sacrifice that you and your loved ones are making to come up with the retainer fee, all so that you can have Criminal Defense Attorney Vik Monder representing you.
Understanding the Pre-File Stage of the Criminal Justice Process
Everyone knows that the criminal justice process begins when you are accused of committing a criminal offense. This accusation can result from an alleged victim of a crime filing a report with law enforcement, law enforcement personally seeing you commit a crime, or as a result of a criminal investigation by law enforcement against you. Law enforcement agencies are responsible for investigating the allegations against you, if they find probable cause that you committed a crime or personally witnessed you committing the crime then they will arrest you. However, in most criminal cases there is usually not enough probable cause at the time of reporting and a criminal investigation is required to find probable cause for law enforcement to take you into custody. The pre-file is the earliest stage of the criminal justice process; during this time, you may be under investigation by a law enforcement agency but no formal charges will have been filed against you by a prosecutorial agency. The lead investigator in your case will be responsible for conducting the investigation and upon completion will have full discretion to make a recommendation whether or not charges against you should be filed with a prosecutorial agency. As part of the criminal investigation, the lead detective will attempt to contact you and obtain a statement regarding the allegations against you. You must not communicate with law enforcement! Any statement that you offer is considered self-incrimination and you should know that the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution protects against self-incrimination but the right must be invoked by you! This means that if you freely offer information to the lead detective on your case, you will have waived your Sixth Amendment right against self-incrimination. It will not matter that you were trying to cooperate with law enforcement or that you did not understand the significance of your answers. It is crucial that you understand that any information that you offer to law enforcement during an open investigation can and will be used by the lead detective to file charges against you. The only way to protect yourself from self-incrimination is to retain Mission Hills Criminal Defense Attorney Vik Monder on a pre-file basis!
Mitigating with Mission Hills Law Enforcement Agencies at the Pre-File Stage
If you are currently the subject of an open investigation in Mission Hills, the law enforcement agency conducting the criminal investigation will either be the Western Division or the San Diego Police Department, depending on the nature of the offense. The San Diego Police Department – Western Division serves the Mission Hills neighborhood and is responsible for the 57,841 residents. The Western Division provides the elderly and disabled population living on their own the service of regularly checking in on them and conducting security checks on homes while owners are away. While the San Diego Police is responsible for canine searches, restraining orders, child abuse, domestic violence, automobile thefts, homicides, elder and dependent abuse, financial crimes, gangs, arson crimes, and narcotics. Regardless of which law enforcement agency is investigating you, you should not communicate with either one without a criminal defense attorney representing you. At the pre-file stage of your case, Mission Hills Criminal Defense Attorney Vik Monder’s primary goal is to invoke your Sixth Amendment right against self-incrimination by communicating with the lead detective in your case on your behalf. Unlike your personal statements, any statements that criminal defense attorney Vik Monder makes to law enforcement will be considered within the scope of your legal representation and cannot be used against you in court. At Monder Law Group, we realize that the pre-file stage is perhaps one of the most critical times for you to obtain experienced legal representation in order to avoid formal charges from being filed in your case. That is why we have built great rapport handling cases on a pre-file basis with both the neighborhood Western Division and the San Diego Police Department. Attorney Vik Monder will initiate communication with the lead detective on your case in an effort to demonstrate your cooperation with the criminal investigation. In order to protect your interests throughout the investigation process, attorney Vik Monder will strategize what information would be in your best interest to share with the lead detective on your case and when such discussions should take place. At Monder Law Group our legal staff of experts includes a private investigator and a mitigation specialist. These individuals will play a key role in the pre-file basis of your representation. Attorney Vik Monder will have the law firm’s investigator conduct his own investigation about the circumstances surrounding your involvement in the case. Our private investigator will be responsible for inspecting the scene of the crime, looking for potential defense witnesses, taking down statements, taking photographs of pertinent evidence and upon availability requesting surveillance videos. Our law firm’s mitigation specialist will meet with you to inquire about your criminal history, educational background, current employment, medical history, family responsibilities, and any service that you may have provided to the community. All of this personal information allows us to present the lead detective on your case with a complete view of who you are as individual. Attorney Vik Monder will then personally review all of the information collected by his private investigator and mitigation specialist to draft a letter to the lead detective on your case. In his letter, attorney Vik Monder will explain the findings from our private investigation and address the personal extenuating circumstances that the mitigation specialist has identified in your case. As part of the mitigation packet, attorney Vik Monder will include all documentation necessary to support the defense’s position and demand that it be considered in the lead detective’s investigation. Lastly, attorney Vik Monder will schedule a meeting with the lead detective on your case to ensure a thorough understanding of all the facts surrounding the investigation and bring awareness to the unforeseen consequences that a criminal charge would have in your life. At Monder Law Group, our vast experience handling cases out of Mission Hills on a pre-file basis by using mitigation strategies has been very successful at avoiding criminal charges from being filed.
