Memphis Criminal Defense Attorney On: Being Charged With a Crime in Collierville

Collierville, Tennessee is a suburb of Memphis located in Shelby County.  Because it is outside the Memphis city limits, it has an independent municipal government including its own court system.  If you are charged with a crime in Collierville your case will be heard in the Municipal Court located at 101 Walnut Street. The Collierville municipal court is a general sessions court, which means it does not have jurisdiction to dispose of felony cases.  Felonies must be transferred to the Shelby County Criminal Court in Memphis for review by the grand jury.  However if your case is a misdemeanor or if it’s a felony that can be reduced to a misdemeanor, it can be resolved in Collierville.  Some types of misdemeanors that are handled in Collierville include shoplifting, minor in possession of alcohol, disorderly conduct, simple drug possession, simple assault, domestic assault, and driving under the influence.  If you are charged with one of these offenses you should do everything possible to avoid a conviction and keep the charge from going on your record permanently.  A Collierville criminal defense lawyer can help with this. How the case is resolved is going to depend on the particular facts of that case.  Shoplifting charges in Collierville, for instance, carry a sentence of up to 11 months and 29 days.  If the accused qualifies, he or she may be placed on judicial diversion for that length of time and then have the entire record of the case dismissed and expunged at the end.  Alternatively, the case may be resolved through a shorter process where the accused pays restitution to the store in lieu of prosecution.  Your lawyer can coordinate with the store and the prosecutor’s office on how to do this. Collierville domestic assault cases can sometimes be resolved without a trial or guilty plea.  If the prosecutor’s office agrees, the victim may sign an affidavit stating he or she does not want to press charges.  The affidavit can be presented at court and the accused would pay court costs, then the case can be dismissed.  Your attorney can draft the affidavit, get the victim’s signature, and make sure the case is expunged from your record.  DUI cases in Collierville are tougher.  If the state feels it has enough evidence for a conviction, it will not dismiss the charge.  In challenging a DUI case, some of the things to look at are whether the police had reasonable suspicion to intitate the stop, how the driver performed on standardized field sobriety tests, and whether he or she submitted to a blood alcohol content test and, if so, what was the result.  There could be many other factors.  A Collierville DUI attorney can advise you further after reviewing your case.  Patrick Stegall is a Collierville Tennessee criminal defense lawyer.  Criminal offenses in Collierville are treated seriously and may be sent to the Shelby County grand jury for indictment.  To see if you can avoid jail time and a permanent conviction in your case, contact Mr. Stegall at 901-205-9894 or email him at pstegall@stegall-law.com.