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Legal Services

Los Angeles Criminal Defense Lawyer

Criminal Law Basics

Criminal law is a wide subject, but this section provides an overview of the essential elements of criminal law. Below you will find introductory information on the basics of criminal law -- including classification of crimes, differences between civil and criminal cases, how crimes are charged and how to hire a criminal defense lawyer.

Criminal Laws and Their Sources

When a society and its government decide that certain conduct is dangerous to citizens, or damaging to the society as a whole, such conduct is labeled a "crime" and is made punishable by sanctions such as fines and imprisonment. Most crimes are identified in statutes that have been enacted by federal, state, and local government legislatures, in response to issues that affect the jurisdiction. For example, a city may determine that it is a crime to be drunk in public, while the federal government decides bank robbery is a federal crime, since most banks are federally insured.

Criminal statutes describe the type of conduct that has been deemed a crime, the mindset or intent required, and in some instances, the proper punishment. For example, the following "Burglary" statutes are from the California Penal Code:

Section 459. Every person who enters any house, room, apartment, tenement, shop, warehouse, store, mill, barn, stable, outhouse or other building, tent, vessel, [etc.]...with intent to commit grand or petit larceny or any felony is guilty of burglary.
Section 461. Burglary is punishable as follows:
1. Burglary in the first degree: by imprisonment in the state prison for two, four, or six years.
2. Burglary in the second degree: by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding one year or in the state prison.

People who are found to have violated a criminal law -- whether through their own admission by a "guilty" plea, or as a result of a jury trial -- can be punished through imposition of fines, imprisonment, probation, and community service, among other penalties.

The Criminal Law System: Players and Procedure

The criminal law "system" encompasses the entire criminal process itself -- from investigation and arrest, to conviction and sentencing -- and the people who play a role in that process: the accused, police officers, prosecuting attorneys, bail bondsmen, criminal defense attorneys, judges, witnesses, probation officers, and corrections officers.

At all stages of the criminal process, a person suspected of or charged with a crime is entitled to certain fundamental rights that derive from the U.S. Constitution and key court decisions. These include the right to an attorney and the right to a speedy jury trial. These constitutional rights provide a balance between the government's interest in ensuring that criminal behavior is identified and punished, and the fundamental need to preserve and promote the individual freedoms that characterize a democratic society.

The Outcome: How Might a Criminal Case End?

The outcome of any criminal case depends upon the crime charged, the strength of the evidence, the legal validity of law enforcement and courtroom procedure, and the goals and strategy of the government and defense. When all is said and done, there may be no legal consequence for a person charged with a crime, because the charges are dismissed, or a full-fledged jury trial might result in a criminal conviction.

Some potential outcomes of a criminal case are:

A criminal investigation ends with no arrest.
An arrest occurs, but the case is dismissed because the police illegally seized the only evidence of crime.
A person is arrested and charged with a crime, then enters into a plea bargain with the government, agreeing to plead "guilty" in exchange for some form of leniency, such as a lighter sentence.
A person is brought to trial and found "not guilty," or acquitted, by a jury.
A person is convicted by a jury and sentenced to a long prison term.

Civil Rights

About Civil Rights Law

Civil Rights Basics

The term "civil rights" encompasses many different laws and ideas, thus is is useful to begin with a basic overview of the concept of civil rights generally. What are civil rights? Where do civil rights come from? What recourse to citizens have when their rights are violated? This overview will begin to provide the answers to these basic questions. Below you will find links to the different sections within FindLaw's overview of the legal concepts of civil rights and unlawful discrimination, links to key federal laws and U.S. Supreme Court cases on civil rights, and much more.

Racial discrimination occurs when an individual is subjected to unequal treatment because of their actual or perceived race. This section offers in-depth information on unlawful racial discrimination in a number of settings -- including employment and education -- and provides links to key federal laws and U.S. Supreme Court decisions related to unlawful racial discrimination.

Civil Rights Basics – Background information on civil rights and unlawful discrimination, including historical timeline of key events in U.S. history.
Race Discrimination – Information on unlawful race discrimination in housing, education, employment, voting, and more.
Gender Discrimination – Information on unlawful gender (sex)discrimination in housing, education, and employment, including equal pay discrimination and pregnancy discrimination.
Disability Discrimination – Information and resources for disabled persons involving employment, public accommodations, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Employment Discrimination – An overview of workplace discrimination and harassment, including tips on how to file an EEOC claim.

Housing Discrimination – Information on housing discrimination, including laws on fair housing, renter's protection, and HUD resources.
Enforcing Your Civil Rights – Information on what to do if your civil rights have been violated, including tips on filing a civil rights lawsuit or consumer complaint.
Find a Civil Rights Lawyer in Your Area – Quick access to civil rights lawyers by state, county, metro, or city for immediate assistance with a potential civil rights violation case.
Civil Rights: More Topics – Information and resources on a number of additional civil rights topics, including age discrimination, sexual orientation discrimination, and police misconduct.
Civil Rights Laws and Resources – Links to civil rights laws, government agencies, and more.

Entertainment Law

Entertainment law or media law is a term for a mix of more traditional categories of law with a focus on providing legal services to the entertainment industry. The principal areas of Entertainment Law overlap substantially with the well-known and conventional field of intellectual property law. But generally speaking the practice of entertainment law often involves questions of employment law, contract law, torts, labor law, bankruptcy law, immigration, securities law, security interests, agency, intellectual property (especially trademarks, copyright, and the so-called "Right of Publicity"), right of privacy, defamation, clearance of rights, product placement, advertising, criminal law, tax law, International law(especially Private international law), and insurance law. Much of the work of an entertainment law practice is transaction based, i.e. drafting contracts, negotiation and mediation. Some situations may lead to litigation or arbitration.

Hands-on and on-hand. Drawing on his extensive entertainment law experience, Stephen is known for developing creative legal solutions customized to his clients’ needs. Handling both transactional and litigation work, he is highly sought after as legal counsel in the following areas:

Copyright infringement law suits
Entertainment-related contracts, including:
- Screenplay option agreements
- Screenplay purchase agreements
- Actor agreements for movies
- Actor agreements with agents or managers
- Collaboration agreements for more than one writer
- Producer agreements
Trademark registrations
Trademark-related contracts
Trademark assignments
Manuscript vetting
Right-of-publicity litigation

Personal Injury

Product Liability Law

Legal Liability for Product Injuries - Details on the theories of liability for product injuries, including negligence, warranty and strict liability.
Proving Fault in Product Cases - Overview of how one can prove fault in strict product liability cases.
Unavoidably Unsafe Products - Discussion of the legal criteria for determining whether a product is "unavoidably unsafe."
Time Limits to File Product Liability Claims - State by state breaskdown of deadlines for filing product injury lawsuits.
Product Injury Case Preparation - Discussion of the initial steps and considerations in preparing a case after a product injury.
Settling Product Liability Claims - Breakdown of things to consider and common issues arrising in product liability settlement situations.

Types of Product Defects

Manufacturing Defects - Overview of defects in which products simply do not work as designed despite use with reasonable care.
Defects in Design - Explanation of when a product's design renders it unsafe, including discusion of reasonable design alternatives.
Failure to Warn - Details on the level of warning required on products as to foreseeable risks of harm posed by a products use.
Defective Drug Cases - Specifics on product liability claims stemming from defective prescription or over-thr-counter drugs.
Medical Device Cases - Specifics on legal liability stemming from defective medical devices such as implants and prosthetics.

Foreclosure

A home is more than a place we go to feel safe at night and get some
rest for the next day of work. It is a place where we raise our
families and create memories that last a life time. For the most part,
a home is the single most important monetary investment a person can
make. At the Law Offices of Stephen A. King we know how devastating it
can be to be faced with the possibility of losing your home. Our goal
is to obtain a permanent solution to your situation which we plan on
accomplishing by becoming educated and knowledgeable about your home
loan. Just think, you could be the victim of predatory lending
practices and not even know it.

Our research and findings over the eighteen months has confirmed that
most loan modifications are designed to take advantage of distressed
homeowners and prey on those who are desperate to save their homes. In
fact, a huge majority of loan modification programs only offer a
temporary solution and do nothing to prevent the banks from
foreclosing on your home.

What allows the bank to continue to foreclose even during a modification:

Default servicing usually begins when a homeowner falls behind on
their mortgage payments somewhere around 60 days and the homeowner
seeks a way to “work it out” with the lender or servicer. Default
servicing can also occur when a homeowner is not delinquent or in
default of their loan obligations, but voluntarily enters into a
temporary loan modification, believing that they can receive a lower
payment, interest rate, or principal reduction on a permanent basis.
Either way, the result is default servicing which means your servicer
or lender can and usually will continue the foreclosure process while
collecting payments from you. This practice has misled us all into
thinking the foreclosure rates have slowed down but quite to the
contrary, the usual result is the homeowner loses and the servicer or
lender wins.

What process can be followed to stop the bank from foreclosing on my home:

To obtain a permanent solution the Law Offices of Stephen A. King will
attack your loan in three important ways. First, we attack the loan
origination process; secondly, the servicing of the loan; and thirdly,
the loan termination process or foreclosure. To get started, we
conduct a forensic loan audit which allows us to find out what may
have been done wrong when the loan was originated. In addition to
this, we analyze how the loan was serviced prior to any default. The
last thing we do is “trust” that the lender or servicer operates
openly and fairly. In fact, we believe the opposite is true; that it
is the goal of the lender and/or servicer is to complicate the paper
trail and get the homeowner lost in the shuffle. We are not thrown off
by this and have computer systems which check for the accuracy of our
findings.

We next uncover hidden charges and fees which have been attributed to
your mortgage account without notification or justification. Our
research has found that various state and federal laws regulate late
fees, junk fees, overcharges and misapplication of payments often
attributed to a mortgage account when a late payment is received or a
default is declared by the lender/servicer. Through a thorough
examination of your loan documents we are usually able to find
actionable causes of actions to pursue in state or federal court. The
forensic loan audit allows us to get familiar with your loan and
provides us the ammunition we need for the filing of a lawsuit against
your lender which could be the answer to all of your prayers. .

I am in default, what are my choices:

If you are in default on your mortgage, you essentially have five choices:

1. Pay the deficiency amount and bring the loan current.

2. Try to get approved for a loan modification which is not permanent
and may require you to sign away certain legal rights necessary for
you to pursue a lawsuit against your lender if you ever decide to do
so.

3. Become foreclosed upon.

4. Restructure your loan in bankruptcy court if you qualify.

5. Fight against the banks for violations of lending practices and
predatory lending. Begin the process of saving your home now and join
us in the fight to save homeowners one home at a time.

Call us at (310) 598-6703 to learn more about the options you have to
save your home!!