The Criminal Law Handbook: Know Your Rights, Survive the System

1. Talking to the Police
2. Search and Seizure: When the Police Can Search for and Seize Evidence
3. Arrest: When It Happens, What It Means
4. Police Procedures to Help Eyewitnesses Identify Suspects
5. Booking and Bail: Checking In and Checking Out of Jail
6. From Suspect to Defendant: How Crimes Get Charged
7. Criminal Defense Lawyers: Who They Are, What They Do, How to Find One
8. Understanding the Attorney-Client Relationship in a Criminal Case
9. A Walk Through Criminal Court
10. Arraignments
11. Developing the Defense Strategy
12. Crimespeak: Understanding the Language of Criminal Laws
13. Defensespeak: Common Defenses to Criminal Charges
14. Discovery: Exchanging Information With the Prosecution
15. Investigating the Facts
16. Preliminary Hearings
17. Fundamental Trial Rights of the Defense
18. Basic Evidence Rules in Criminal Trials
19. Motions and Their Role in Criminal Cases
20. Plea Bargains: How Most Criminal Cases End
21. The Trial Process
22. Sentencing: How the Court Punishes Convicted Defendants
23. Appeals: Seeking Review by a Higher Court
24. How the Criminal Justice System Works: A Walk Through Two Drunk Driving Cases
25. Juvenile Courts and Procedures
26. Prisoners’ Rights
27. Looking Up the Law

Do you know what happens when you are accused of a crime? How you are charged? How plea bargains work? What happens in court? Anyone who needs answers to these questions -- people accused of a crime, victims of crime, their families and friends, witnesses and those who want to know how the system works -- can turn to a plain-English legal book for the information they need. With The Criminal Law Handbook, you can learn exactly what goes on in a criminal case. The easy-to-follow, question-and-answer format covers: *arrests *booking *preliminary hearings *charges *bail *courts *arraignment *search and seizure *defenses *evidence *trials *plea bargains *sentencing *juveniles *"crimespeak," the language commonly used in criminal statutes *and much more The 5th edition provides the latest in the law and court findings. Find out if police can use high-tech devices to search for evidence in your house, whether school officials can search students without warrants, and how the post-9/11 Patriot Act expands the power of federal agents.