If you have been arrested or fear that you or your loved one may soon be arrested for something, one of the most common questions is how much time are they facing in jail or even prison?
First lets answer this: What’s the difference between jail and prison? The difference between jail and prison is that jail is where you are held until you are sentenced in a case, but any sentence that includes more than one year incarceration will be served in prison, not jail.
It is important to be careful when asking this question to attorneys for a couple reasons. One, while no one can guarantee an outcome in a case, an experienced criminal defense attorney, especially for first-time offenders (on non-violent charges) or someone with an insignificant criminal history, that experienced attorney can give you a realistic expectation on what type of time you would be facing.
Be careful that the attorney does not try to scare you in order to increase their fees or justify their fees because of the amount of jail or prison time you are facing. Also make sure they don’t use that to convince you to take a plea when you are adamant you are not guilty of a crime, or of the crime charged.
Our Florida Defense Team is always honest with our clients and when we know (because of our experience) that a person is not facing jail realistically, we will tell them that. On the other hand, some charges require mandatory jail time or mandatory prison time which we will also discuss that as well.
If you have a question about how much time you might be facing for a certain offense, please feel free to reach out to us online or by phone, we are available 24/7 by email, text or phone to answer your questions and to assist you or your loved ones who may be facing criminal charges anywhere in the State of Florida.