If you or a loved one is facing federal charges, your first step should be to gain a strong understanding of the offense and potential penalties you face. At the Law Office of Victor Bakke, ALC, we truly care about your future and can use our experience handling cases in federal court to your advantage. Not many attorneys in Honolulu handle federal cases. Of the lawyers who do take on federal cases, Victor Bakke is among the most experienced.
Our Honolulu criminal defense lawyer has more than 20 years of experience. Get a free consultation today by calling our office or submitting an online form!
As a former prosecutor, our criminal defense attorney understands the situation you are facing and has in-depth knowledge of the arguments used by the prosecutors. Our firm can use this knowledge to your advantage in court. With a thorough understanding of the legal process that you are facing, you can trust in the legal guidance that we can bring to your case.
As a result of our background, we have a strong knowledge of:
During each stage of your federal case, including pretrial and sentencing, you can be skillfully represented by our criminal defense lawyer. Our firm will do everything in our legal ability to minimize the charges and consequences that you may face for a federal crime.
Only about a quarter of the attorneys in Honolulu can take on federal crime cases, and our firm has the experience to represent you effectively. Contact us today!
Federal crimes are offenses that involve conduct defined as "criminal" by the national government. Federal offenses can either be felonies or misdemeanors, depending on the severity of the crime and the degree of punishment that will be imposed by the government.
Various types of crimes are considered felony offenses, including:
If you have been charged with a crime in federal court in the state of Hawaii, you will need an attorney to help with your defense; however, not all lawyers in Hawaii are the same.
You need to find a lawyer who has experience in the federal court, not just the state courts. The rules are completely different than the state courts, so you will need to find somebody with experience in the Hawaii federal court.
The federal grand jury is a group of people from the community that are called to jury service, usually for a period of one year. They are the gatekeepers of the criminal justice system. In order for federal prosecutors to file a criminal charge against somebody, they must first present their case to the grand jury.
It is done in secret and then that grand jury will decide whether or not there is enough evidence to actually have a person arrested and charged with a criminal federal offense.
Hawaii is a very small place and it's not uncommon for people to say that they heard through a friend or an acquaintance that they were maybe under investigation by a federal agency, such as the FBI or the DEA.
If you hear something like that, you should take it very seriously. That probably means that your name has come up in one of their ongoing investigations. You should immediately contact an attorney who then can contact the agency for you and take further steps to see if you are in fact, under investigation, and if there is anything that needs to be done to protect your rights.
The federal sentencing guidelines are a set of rules that are advisory to the court to try to help the court determine what a fair & just sentence should be in a criminal case.
Usually, the judge will refer to the sentencing guidelines to get an initial baseline as to what the jail terms should be. The judge will then either add time or he can reduce time from that level as well, but the guidelines are advisory.
If you have been convicted of a federal crime and sentenced to a term of imprisonment, one thing that you want to know when you get there is how do you get time off for good behavior.
They do have something called good credit time in the federal system, and in general, you will be able to get up to 53 days off per year of your sentenced served. That time off though, and the decision to give that time, is decided by the warden only. It is not decided by the judge at the time of your actual sentence.
So if you've been sentenced to a crime, the first thing you want to do when you get to the prison, is check with the case manager and the warden and determine what you need to do to get your time off for good behavior. But usually good behavior means:
You are a model prisoner.