Building a Defense For White Collar Criminal Cases

A conviction for a white collar crime often carries severe penalties including fines and jail time. For this reason, it’s important that you understand how the strongest possible defense is built.

Below is information on building a defense for white collar cases including what kind of evidence is used and what makes these cases difficult to defend. If you have been accused of a white collar crime call today and schedule a free consultation with a white collar attorney.

How Do You Go About Building a Defense Strategy to White Collar Crimes?

It’s similar to other cases, but you really need to look at the paper trail. A lot of times you have to build the defense around what the paper or the contracts that either show or don’t show in a white collar case. From there, you have to look at if the government has other non-paper evidence, for example cooperating witnesses. You have to look at what they’re going to say in relation to the documented evidence because if what they’re saying is not backed up by that, then you can use that against the cooperating witness.

You also have to worry about other types of evidence like wiretaps. The interpretation of that evidence can be very important. There could be e-mails, so you have to look at those e-mails and see if they are potentially incriminating or if there is another interpretation to say that they’re not. Finally, in a white collar case, sometimes the government will be alleging conduct that is not even illegal. You’ll have that in white collar cases sometimes because the nature of economic transactions can be so complicated.

What Makes White Collar Criminal Cases Interesting to Defend?

White collar cases are really interesting because they encompass so many issues. When the government is trying to access e-mails, there is so much litigation and so many issues that can be raised in that context alone. Then you have the issue of wiretaps and whether or not they were legally justified. Then there’s the interpretation of different documents.  A lot of times when you’re working on a white collar case you have to learn the business that your client is in, whether it’s health care or the benefits industry, especially when you’re talking about ERISA. There’s always something new to learn. At the core of it is the fact that you’re representing people who you want to help, so that’s always the most interesting part. You’re meeting new people, learning about their lives, and trying to make it better for them.