How Can a Criminal Defense Lawyer Get Your Charges Dropped?

 Posted on February 13, 2025 in Criminal Defense

Anyone who has ever faced criminal charges knows it can be one of the most overwhelming, daunting experiences in their life. Uncertainty can feel like it has taken over your entire life. Will you be convicted? Will you have to go to jail or prison? (That alone is a terrifying scenario).   How will a criminal conviction impact the rest of your life?

In addition to the criminal penalties you may face, there are many collateral damages you could also face. You could lose your current job and be unable to secure employment after you have served your sentence. Criminal charges and convictions can destroy your financial security.  If you are convicted of a felony offense, you may be unable to obtain a professional license, rent an apartment, obtain a federal student loan for college, work with children, or even vote or own a firearm.

For all of these reasons, it is critical that you have the best, most experienced Jefferson County, WI criminal defense attorney as your legal advocate. You need an attorney who will fight for you and your future and one who will look at every aspect of your charges to determine whether mistakes were made that could lead to having your charges dropped.   

Not All Charges Lead to a Criminal Conviction

Criminal charges are often dropped once an experienced criminal defense attorney comprehensively evaluates the circumstances surrounding the charges. A criminal defense attorney will look for grounds to have the charges dropped. These grounds include:

• Lack of sufficient evidence on the part of the prosecutor
• Police errors made during the arrest or during the interview with the defendant.
• Violations of the defendant’s constitutional rights
• Challenges to scientific evidence presented by the prosecutor
• Credibility issues with the witnesses for the prosecution
• Mitigating circumstances

The prosecution must show that the defendant committed the crime he or she is charged with beyond a reasonable doubt. If the prosecutor fails to meet this burden of proof, the defendant’s charges could be dropped. Sometimes, police do not have probable cause to pull someone over. If it is proven that there was no probable cause, then everything that came after that is considered inadmissible.

A police officer could search a person or his or her home or vehicle without reasonable suspicion and a warrant based on that reasonable suspicion. Again, everything after an illegal search and seizure is inadmissible. In some cases, the police may not properly Mirandize the defendant or could refuse the defendant’s right to have an attorney present. Any of these violations can result in dropped charges.

Mitigating circumstances usually involve a defendant’s use of self-defense or a defendant’s mental incapacitation. Challenging eyewitness testimony is common among criminal defense attorneys since it has been shown that few eyewitnesses are actually credible. This is not usually because the witness is being deliberately deceptive but because human beings are not very good at remembering details of a crime they witnessed.

Other Reasons Criminal Charges Could Be Dropped

There are additional reasons criminal charges might be dropped. A prosecutor might believe a case is unlikely to result in a conviction, so will drop the charges. In some cases, if a defendant has a prior criminal history and the penalty of the crime seems harsh, given the circumstances, a prosecutor could drop the charges "in the interest of justice," but this is rare.

Plea bargains are common in criminal cases; a more serious charge might be dropped in return for the defendant pleading guilty to the lesser charges. For some specific criminal offenses, diversion programs are available that can result in the charges being dropped when the community service or drug treatment is completed.

Contact a Walworth County, WI Criminal Defense Lawyer

Navigating the legal system can be overwhelming for those not familiar with it. An experienced Milwaukee County, WI criminal defense attorney from Bucher Law Group, LLC can help. Attorney Bucher spent 20 years as the Waukesha County District Attorney and has litigated some of the most high-profile, complex cases in Wisconsin. Call Bucher Law Group, LLC to schedule your free consultation.