It’s one of the first questions people ask after a domestic violence arrest: if my spouse doesn’t want to go forward — if they refuse to testify, or tell the prosecutor they want to drop it — does the case just go away? It’s a reasonable hope, and an understandable one. The honest answer is…
For a physician, dentist, chiropractor, pharmacist, clinic owner, or billing company, a healthcare fraud investigation rarely begins with handcuffs. It begins with a records subpoena, an unannounced audit, a request for an “interview,” or a letter from a payer demanding repayment — and by the time those arrive, the government has usually been building the…
An arrest record can follow a person long after a case ends, affecting employment, housing, professional licensing, social status, and immigration status. Fortunately, California law provides several legal remedies that may limit or even remove the impact of past arrests and convictions. Depending on how a case was resolved, individuals may be eligible to seal…
A preliminary hearing is the most important pretrial proceeding in any California felony case. It is the point at which the prosecution must show — for the first time, on the record, in open court — that it has enough evidence to require the defendant to face trial. It is also one of the few…
It happens more often than people expect: you defend yourself or your family from someone who attacked first — and you are the one who ends up arrested. It is one of the most frustrating positions to be in, and one of the most defensible, because in California self-defense is not a technicality. It is…
If police have searched your home with a drug search warrant, the raid is over but the case is just beginning — and what you do now, before charges are filed, often matters more than anything that happened while officers were in the house. Maybe they seized your phone and some property and left a…
The arraignment is the first formal court appearance in a California criminal case, and for most defendants it is the moment when the abstract experience of being arrested becomes the concrete reality of being prosecuted. Penal Code § 825 requires that a person arrested without a warrant be arraigned within 48 hours — excluding Sundays…
Drug possession under California Health & Safety Code § 11350 is the crime of possessing a controlled substance — including many prescription medications — without a valid prescription. It is the most common drug charge in the state, and for most people the real harm isn’t the sentence; it’s the conviction record that follows them…
You backed out of a space and clipped the car next to you, or caught a mailbox, a fence, or a parked truck — and you drove off. Maybe you didn’t think the damage was serious, maybe you didn’t realize you’d hit anything at all, and maybe it genuinely wasn’t your fault. Days later, a…
In almost every case, police in California need a warrant to search the contents of your cell phone — even after they’ve arrested you. Your phone holds your messages, photos, location history, banking, and health data, and both the U.S. Supreme Court and California law treat searching it as far more intrusive than emptying your…
Your child was cited for shoplifting, a schoolyard fight, a vape pen, or a beer at a party — booked, then released to you within hours. The relief is real, and so is the thought that follows it: if they let him come home, how serious can it be? That single assumption is the most…
A probation violation is one of the few situations in criminal law where the deck is genuinely stacked against you — the government has to prove far less than it did to convict you in the first place, and the judge can send you to serve the sentence that was hanging over your head. If…
If you or a loved one is facing criminal charges in Southwest Riverside County, time is critical. Contact the Law Office of Nic Cocis today for a free, no-obligation case evaluation.
