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Suppose that you are seriously injured in an auto accident, and the other driver is at fault. Should you file an insurance claim or consider a personal injury lawsuit?

Once you have someone arrested, it is difficult to “drop” the charges because the State of Georgia (or one of its municipalities), via the prosecuting attorney’s office, takes over prosecution of the action. Even if you request that the charges be “dropped” and refuse to cooperate with the prosecuting attorney’s office, the government will continue to prosecute the action.

The basic difference between specific intent crimes and general intent crimes is that specific intent requires that the defendant intended both the action and the result of the action. A general intent crime means that the defendant only intended the action.

Law enforcement officers often use age-old tactics to promulgate confessions and, sometimes, those confessions are false. Sometimes, DNA or other evidence exonerates people who have falsely confessed or who have been coerced or tricked into confessing, but the process is tedious and lengthy. A false confession could also mar your record, even though the charges are later dropped.

Anyone convicted of false imprisonment in the State of Georgia could receive a jail sentence of up to 10 years. Anyone charged with interference of custody for, for example, removing a child from an ex-spouse who has lawful custody may be convicted of a misdemeanor.

Georgia Statutes state that if you take property from another person or while that person is in your immediate presence, whether by using force, because you intimidated the person, coerced the person or you snatched the property, you may be charged with robbery.

You may think that buying or accepting property that was stolen absolves you from any wrong-doing. Pursuant to Georgia law, however, you could be prosecuted for receiving stolen property unless you had no idea that it was stolen. OCGA § 16-8-7 states that if you accept property you know is stolen, you could be charged with a crime.

St. Patrick’s Day is a day of celebration, sometimes with green beer and liquor. Bars often have celebrations for St. Patrick’s Day, so it’s tempting to go out and party. However, your St. Paddy’s day luck could turn bad if you are stopped for DUI in Georgia, especially if you have multiple convictions in the past ten years.

Being falsely accused of a crime could stem from a person lying about your actions, such as in a divorce scenario, or it could stem from shoddy police work. Often, in contentious divorce cases, one spouse will accuse another of spousal abuse, child abuse or even substance abuse in order to gain primary custody of children or in order to gain financially.

Georgia law permits deadly force to protect property and defines when you may use force. In some cases, however, deadly force could result in a murder charge. Questions about protecting yourself and your property often come into play with the increase in crime in certain areas.