Being arrested for a crime can easily be a scary and stressful situation. If this is your first experience with the criminal justice system, you may not know what to do following your arrest. However, taking the wrong actions after you have been arrested can seriously jeopardize your legal rights and potentially increase the chances that you are convicted. You…

  If you are facing a criminal charge for the first time in your life, you may be eligible for admission to a diversionary program. In these programs, a defendant can avoid a criminal conviction or even avoid having any record of their arrest and charge removed from their record, so long as the defendant successfully completes the terms of…

If you are arrested and charged with a crime but your charges are later dismissed or you obtain an acquittal at trial, you may wonder whether your arrest and charges will show up on a background check for employment, housing, or admission to an educational program.  Do Criminal Charges That Resulted in Dismissal or Acquittal Show Up on a Background…

Mischief Night is a quasi-holiday observed by many children and teens across New Jersey on October 30, the night before Halloween. On Mischief Night, young people will often engage in mostly harmless pranks, like ringing doorbells and running away, throwing rolls of toilet paper, and smashing pumpkins. Unfortunately, some young people choose to escalate the scope or destructive nature of…

Under New Jersey law, there are four major kinds of weapons offenses: possession of a prohibited weapon, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, unlawful possession of a weapon, and possession by a person not to possess weapons. Learn more about the penalties associated with each of these below.  Prohibited Weapons New Jersey law prohibits possession of certain kinds…