What is the Difference Between a Misdemeanor and a Felony?

June 30, 2015

By Collin County Criminal Defense Lawyer Jeremy Rosenthal

texasdefensefirm.com

(972) 369-0577

Felonies are punishable by possible jail over 1 year and misdemeanors are punishable for 1 year or less under Texas law.

Beyond that, Felonies obviously carry a somewhat more negative stigma meaning it is more difficult to be hired for a job, get a loan, or even be allowed to coach your child’s athletic team.

Collateral Consequences

Felonies also carry more collateral consequences — or consequences which aren’t directly related to criminal punishment itself than misdemeanors.  For example, being a felon can make firearm possession illegal, can prohibit you from holding public office or even from voting.

Felonies typically have more adverse immigration consequences than misdemeanors though immigration courts tend to use their own guidelines when determining the severity of a crime.

Crimes of Moral Terptitude

Some misdemeanors can have consequences every bit as severe as felonies.  Examples can be theft charges which can make professional licensing more difficult.  A theft charge on someone’s record can cause someone to lose job opportunities where trust is required such as an being a bookkeeper or sales clerk.

Affirmative findings of family violence can also carry felony-like consequences for the purposes of future enhancement or the denial of 2nd Amendment firearm rights.

*Jeremy Rosenthal is Board Certified in Criminal Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and licensed by the Supreme Court of Texas. Nothing in this article is intended to be legal advice.  For legal advice about any situation you should consult an attorney directly.

 

 

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How Long Does a Conviction Stay on a Criminal Record?

April 3, 2015

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Protecting a Professional License When Facing Criminal Charges

January 21, 2014

By Collin County Criminal Defense Lawyer Jeremy Rosenthal

(972) 369-0577

texasdefensefirm.com

A professional license is like your personal Alamo.  It’s your livelihood and must be defended at all costs.

Any criminal charge must be evaluated to gauge it’s impact on your ability to either attain or maintain a professional license.  In some instances losing a license because of a criminal record is automatic and in other instances it may simply open the door to a licensing board to taking action.

This intersection of law is between traditional criminal law and administrative law as criminal courts don’t directly weigh-in on licenses such as medical licenses, CPA licenses, or engineering licenses.  Those decisions are made by different bodies.

Texas Occupations Code Chapter 53 governs the consequences of criminal records on certain professional licenses.  It’s structure demonstrates the complex and layered approach the legislature intended in situations when dealing with certain crimes as they relate to certain professions.

Your criminal lawyer needs to be mindful of the professional consequences in a criminal action.  Someone facing family assault charges, DWI, or drug charges may be facing stiff probation from the criminal court — but probation may be a hollow victory if administrative action against a professional license wipes-out your ability to put food on the table.

The end-game is what really matters and a good criminal lawyer is thinking 5-steps ahead.  Sometimes you simply need a “not-guilty” verdict… and that is that!

*Jeremy Rosenthal is Board Certified in Criminal Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and licensed by the Supreme Court of Texas. Nothing in this article is intended to be legal advice.  For legal advice about any situation you should contact an attorney directly.

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How Long Does a Conviction Stay on a Criminal Record?

May 23, 2010

By Collin County Criminal Defense Lawyer Jeremy Rosenthal

(972) 369-0577

texasdefensefirm.com

Forever.

I ask this question frequently when I’m picking jurors and believe it or not, very few people know this.

I guess it’s understandable because not everyone is a criminal defense attorney or have a loved one weighted down with a conviction.

A conviction in Texas stays on your criminal record forever.  It’s hard to quantify the amount of opportunity costs which are lost due to convictions, but everyone has been asked before when renting an apartment, applying for a job, or seeking a loan, to check the ominous box asking if they’ve ever been convicted of anything other than a minor traffic ticket.

Criminal convictions can even hurt you in things such as adoptions, immigration status, and voting rights if the conviction is a felony.  The collateral consequences are countless.  Here is a good article about the costs of picking up a simple marijuana or other drug case.

In this stunning study from Northwestern University conducted in 2001, it was shown that persons with felony drug records where between 50% and 75% less likely to get a follow-up job interview than other applicants with equal qualifications for jobs as sales, management, and wait staff.   This study proves what we already know — that a criminal record is cancer on your ability to make a living.  What it shows us, too, is just how badly a record hurts relative to those without records.

There is no such thing as a small criminal charge.

*Jeremy Rosenthal is Board Certified in Criminal Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and licensed by the Supreme Court of Texas. Nothing in this article should be considered as legal advice.  For legal advice, you should consult an attorney directly.

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Petition for Non-Disclosure

March 15, 2010

By Criminal Defense Lawyer Jeremy Rosenthal

jeremy@texasdefensefirm.com

(972) 369-0577

A Petition for Non-Disclosure is an intermediate tool used to clean someone’s record.  It essentially hides your record from the public.  It is not as sweeping or as beneficial as an expunction, but it can lessen the blunt force of a conviction.

The Non-Disclosure statute is very complicated and is loaded with qualifications and exceptions.  What it means, in general, is that your criminal record stays intact (unlike an expunction where an arrest record is destroyed), but the state is limited in it’s ability to disseminate the information of your record to the general public.  As you can see by reading the statute, there are numerous agencies which are exempted from honoring the non-disclosure (such as professional licensing bodies), and there are tons of offense which don’t qualify for non-disclosures (such as sexual assault, stalking, and family violence affirmative findings).

Here is how it generally works:  If you plead guilty and are placed on deferred adjudication, you may be eligible to file a petition for non-disclosure two years after the date of your Tex.Code.Crim.P. 42.12(5)(c) dismissal on misdemeanor cases and five years after the dismissal of your felony.  Your petition is discretionary meaning the prosecution can fight it and you must prove to the judge that granting it is in the best interests of justice.

The code was recently amended to allow for immediate non-disclosure of most misdemeanor offenses after successfully being discharged from deferred adjudication.

The benefit of a petition for non-disclosure is that your criminal record shouldn’t be readily available to private companies that do general background searches.  The downfall is that they can be challenging to get and even though the information s difficult to attain, it hasn’t been destroyed as with expunctions.

*Jeremy Rosenthal is Board Certified in Criminal Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and licensed by the Supreme Court of Texas. Nothing in this article should be considered legal advice.  For legal advice you should always consult an attorney.

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