Overview of Criminal Law
This is Wagoner Attorney Stuart Ericson, just going to kind of just give a general overview of criminal law in Oklahoma. So obviously we have two kinds of crimes, misdemeanors and felonies.
Misdemeanors usually carry up to a year in the county jail or less, no prison time, no Department of Corrections time, so obviously much less serious. And so there’s a misdemeanor. When you’re charged with that, you get a CM case number, criminal misdemeanor, it’ll be the year that it’s charged, dash, and then a number. So if you’re CM 2024-1, then that’s the first misdemeanor case they filed in the year 2024.
Felonies are much more serious, you go to prison for felonies. They can carry anywhere from zero to life, and every crime has a different punishment level if you’re convicted. And so a felony case, if you’re charged with that, it would be CF 2024-1, which would be the first felony filed in the year 2024, so criminal felony.
Consequences of Criminal Charges
And you know, it’s serious when you get charged with a crime because there are all kinds of consequences, obviously, with employment, gun ownership, voting rights, trying to find a job, background checks, all that stuff is very impact on what happens to your criminal case.
But if you ever get charged with a crime, whether a misdemeanor or a felony, you’re probably going to want to hire an attorney, someone like me, to go over the whole process with you, to help you understand it, to look at your case, decide how to tackle it. Again, cases are going to be resolved by plea bargain, a dismissal, or a jury trial. There’s just no other way to resolve a case. That’s how they go.
Reach Out for a Initial Strategy Session
So anyway, if you’re charged with a crime and just have questions and need to hire an attorney, which is obviously a smart thing to do, reach out to me, Stuart Ericson at wagonerlawyer.com.
