Possession

Possession in Nevada

Er... a different kind of possession...

My mother most certainly does NOT!

While the movement to "legalize it" gains steady ground throughout the country, Nevada has historically been very harsh on drug use and possession. In fact, a mere 20 years ago, having one marijuana seed in your pocket would get you a felony.

Things have relaxed a little, but we still boast some very strict enforcement of possession of drugs. 

With the advancement of legalized medical marijuana, I'd like to focus more on "harder" drugs with this blog; however I'd be remiss not to tell you that possession of marijuana IS still illegal here, provided you don't have a valid Nevada Medical Marijuana Patient card. No, your California one is not valid here. No, you cannot "just have some" for personal use. You either have a valid, medically approved permit, or you're risking jail time. End of story on MJ. 

Aside from the aforementioned MJ, all other drug possession in Nevada is more serious with most charges being Felony ones. 

Nevada breaks certain types of substances into "schedules". Like this:

Schedule I drugs include those that are the most dangerous and have a high risk of addiction or dependency and no (recognized) legitimate medical use. Drugs included under this heading include LSD, Ecstasy (MDMA, X, Molly), heroin and mescaline.

Schedule II substances still have a high risk of abuse but may also have legitimate medical uses. These include things like opium, cocaine, methadone, methamphetamines, and amphetamines.

Schedule III drugs are slightly less dangerous than Schedule II substances, but still have a moderate risk of abuse. Schedule III substances include anabolic steroids, testosterone, ketamine(special k), and some depressants.

Schedule IV drugs have a slight risk of dependency and have very acceptable medical uses. Some Schedule IV drugs are clonazepam, Xanax, tranquilizers, and sedatives.

SEDAGIVE?!

Schedule V substances have a very low risk of dependency and include things like over-the-counter Tylenol with Codeine.

I should stop here and clarify something that many people don't realize or understand. Nevada has a law stating that if you are in possession of some type of medication that you can only get via a doctor's prescription, you MUST be able to prove that the medication is yours. 

In simple terms, if your friend tosses you a few Oxy's or a handful of Xanax, and you get caught with those pills and you cannot prove that you got those pills legitimately from a doctor, you are, in all likelihood, going to jail on some very serious charges. 

In fact, if you have your own prescription medications and you want to take a few of them with you while leaving the bulk of your pills at home for safety, you may risk the same issue. If a law enforcement officer catches you with some "rogue" prescription medications, and those medications are not in the pharmacy bottle with your name on the label, the officer can very easily arrest you for being in "possession of dangerous drugs without prescription" - NRS 454.316.

As stated, the penalty and charges you face depend on the type of drug you are charged with possessing and the extent of your criminal record.

First and Second Offense:

If it is your first or second drug charge and you are caught with any substance classified as a schedule I, II, III, or IV, you will face Class E felony charges. A class E felony charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 1 year and up to 4 years in prison.

Third Offense:

If this marks the third or greater drug offense for you, and you are charged with possessing any drug listed in Schedule I, II, III, or IV, you will face Class D felony charges. A Class D felony carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 1 year and up to four with a fine reaching $20,000.

Trafficking

Obviously, the amount of drugs you have with you matters a great deal. In fact, there comes a point, legally, where the law basically says: "hey, this person has so much (many?) drugs that he's got to be selling!" This happens at 28 grams for most substances. 

That's right, law enforcement can charge you with Possession with Intent to Sell and/or Drug Trafficking without ever proving you sold drugs to anyone. If you have enough of an illegal drug, the law just assumes that the only reason you had so much was to sell it. 

..but it's personal use!

Transporting a Controlled Substance

Like most people, I'm sure you'd never even consider the notion that you could ever be guilty of transporting a controlled substance, right? Other people do that sort of thing, not me! I'm not a drug mule, you'd say. 

But...

         Every year, here in Las Vegas, we throw this little, humble backyard party and invite a couple close friends... Perhaps you've heard of it.

Electric Begonia or something... with their beeps and boops...

How many people, do you suppose, attend this party from out of state and bring their friend 'Molly' with them? 

Technically this counts as transporting a controlled substance. Oh, and you also can get bonus points for crossing state lines with drugs and get the DEA involved. Especially if you have a lot of Mollies and the law assumes you were transporting a controlled substance across state lines with the intent to sell it. 

You can go from intending to have a fun weekend in Vegas to some seriously deep shit very quickly. 

Louis! I got caught with drugs! Am I going away?

Well, each case is different, but there are many different strategies an aggressive and experienced attorney such as myself can use to mitigate the damage or, sometimes, even get charges reduced or dismissed. 

If you find yourself in this situation, first of all, don't panic. Second, call me right away at 702-435-2121. We will thoroughly discuss your situation and its unique details and come up with the best possible strategy for your legal defense. 

Call my office today! 

WHY IS DIVORCE SO EXPENSIVE?

Anyone else old enough to remember that Dolly Parton Song?

The intent of this blog is to inform and entertain because we all learn faster and easier when we're having a good time with the material. So, in plain English, I'd like to explain why, sometimes, Divorces cost so much!

Most people quickly answer that Lawyers are evil, money-gobbling creatures, and, sure, some are. But the reality of the situation is that many couples seeking a divorce largely create their own ever-increasing legal bills by disagreeing about literally everything they can. 

What does a divorce look like to a lawyer? Let me see if I can break this down for you:

First, the person who initially files for the divorce (and therefore becomes the Plaintiff) goes to a lawyer and explains his/her situation. The lawyer then drafts a COMPLAINT FOR DIVORCE. (Get it, comPLAINT = PLAINTIFF? That's a neat little mnemonic device.) This complaint spells out the basic reasons why the plaintiff wishes to divorce their spouse and, generally, what they want the court to award them in the divorce: the car, the house, the kids...

...and this lamp...

This complaint gets filed with the court (the court charges about $300.00 just to accept and file this document), and then the complaint gets served on the other party who then becomes the Defendant (because s/he has to DEFEND him/herself against the complaint). This service has to be done a specific way to be valid in the eyes of the court, so most lawyers use a licensed Process Server to accomplish this. A process server will charge anywhere from $70 - $300 to perform this service, depending upon the situation. 

The Defendant then has 20 days to respond to the complaint. Usually this means that the Defendant has to go and hire their own lawyer who then drafts a document called an ANSWER AND COUNTERCLAIM, wherein the Defendant Answers the Plaintiff's Complaint by agreeing or disagreeing with specific parts of it and then makes his or her own Counterclaim For Divorce. Most divorce lawyers in Las Vegas charge between $400 - $600 an hour and these documents can sometimes take half a day to draft, depending upon the number of things the couple wishes to argue about. 

Also, there may be things that need addressed before the parties even come close to agreeing on a final Decree of Divorce. These things frequently take the form of child custody, child support, and the payment of debts that the couple accrued together. Sometimes it has to do with who gets to keep the house since the couple no longer wishes to continue to live together during the divorce proceedings. 

To deal with issues such as these, many times a lawyer will bring the parties before the court by filing a MOTION. There is no one "MOTION", and a motion can be about just about anything. Our office tends to favor something called a MOTION FOR INTERIM ORDERS which is a convenient way to draft a document that basically says "Hey, Judge, these people are in the process of getting a divorce, but right now they really can't agree on some important stuff and we need you to make a ruling on just these few items so the folks can move past these issues they're arguing about."

Once one party files a motion (either party can, but they each remain Plaintiff and Defendant during the entirety of the case. Once you're the Plaintiff, that's your title on every document from then on during the whole case), the other party has a limited time to respond to the motion. A proper response to a MOTION is an OPPOSITION AND COUNTERMOTION. 

The person filing the Opposition and Countermotion gives reasons why the party filing the Motion shouldn't get what they've asked for and why the judge should rule in their favor instead. These documents can be extremely lengthy. Depending upon the level of complexity of the issue at hand and the number of attached exhibits, I've seen Motions and Oppositions & Countermotions exceed several hundred pages!

Once a Motion is filed, and then an Opposition & Countermotion is filed in response, the person who filed the motion can respond yet again by filing a REPLY IN SUPPORT OF MOTION AND OPPOSITION TO COUNTERMOTION. In this document, the Motion-filer acknowledges what the other party said in the opposition to their motion and reaffirms why the court should still grant their original motion. They also include an Opposition to the Countermotion. 

Are you confused yet?

It basically turns into this, except with a lawyer on each side charging
500 bucks an hour and using a LOT of paper....

Now, you also have to remember that there is really no specified limit to the documents I've been talking about. People can fire motions and oppositions and countermotions and replies and more oppositions back and forth like arrows in any given Lord of the Rings film. 

Once it reaches a certain point of disagreement, the lawyers for each side will often times schedule something called an Evidentiary Hearing. This is basically a mini-trial where, after weeks of preparation (and more documents - I'll talk about those in a second), everyone shows up in court in front of a judge and pleads their evidence. 

Before an Evidentiary Hearing, both lawyers have an open window of time in which to gather evidence, which the court calls "Discovery". A lawyer can send over pages and pages of questions that the other side, by law, has to answer. One form they can take is something called "Interrogatories". There is a limit of 40 interrogatories a lawyer can propound on the other side, and the questions are designed to address specific issues the couple has. They can be anything, and they generally get uncomfortably personal in nature. 

Other types of discovery are "Request for Admissions" in which one side can send over a list of "yes or no" type questions that the other side must answer. These are also very probing questions, depending upon the couple, and it's a way for one side to demand that the other side air all their secrets in open court or risk perjuring themselves if they get caught lying about something. 

Another type of written discovery is called "Requests for Production" and these are extremely time consuming. Picture 20 or 30 requests, each of them stating something like:

1. Produce your last 6 months of credit card statements, including, but not limited to, any major credit card (American Express, Discover, Visa, MasterCard, etc...) that you have in your name or in the name of your business as well as any store credit cards in your name or under your control (i.e: Kohl's, Victoria Secret, Macy's, Sears, etc...)
2. Please Produce and identify by Bates Stamp Number your DMV driving record for the past 10 years.
3. Please provide a records release for all of your criminal records.

You can see how personal and intrusive these can get. Each time we do an evidentiary hearing, we have to put all of the evidence we plan to use at the hearing in a 3-ring binder, and we have to present our evidence to the Court and the opposing lawyer. This means that, in total, we have to make FOUR identical 3 ring binders full of evidence. 

This can all happen well before a final decree of divorce is submitted and signed by the judge. 

So, that is part of the answer to the question that started this entire diatribe, "Why is Divorce So Expensive?" 

Basically, the more you and soon-to-be ex-spouse can agree upon, the cheaper it's going to be for you both to get divorced!

If you need a qualified and experienced Divorce attorney, give us a call. We'll be happy to help you through your divorce without costing you unnecessary money. 702-435-2121

Attorney's Fees and Costs

In the recent update to Nevada family law, Assembly Bill 263 (AB263) spelled out exactly how you may be entitled to getting some of your legal expenses back from your former spouse when going through family law proceedings:

Section 1. NRS 125.040 is hereby amended to read as follows:

125.040 1. In any suit for divorce the court may, in its discretion, upon application by either party and notice to the other party, require either party to pay moneys necessary to assist the other party in accomplishing one or more of the following:

(a) To provide temporary maintenance for the other party;

(b) To provide temporary support for children of the parties; or

(c) To enable the other party to carry on or defend such suit.

2. The court may make any order affecting property of the parties, or either of them, which it may deem necessary or desirable to accomplish the purposes of this section. Such orders shall be made by the court only after taking into consideration the financial situation of each of the parties.

In plain language, that means that if you are a "stay-at-home" spouse and are unemployed, your spouse cannot either financially hold you hostage if you want to seek a divorce, nor can they go hire a super high-priced divorce attorney and expect you to crumble to all their demands because you don't have any of your own money for your own attorney. 

Everyone is entitled to be on an equal playing field, legally speaking, so if your spouse files for divorce and spends $25,000 with the intention of squashing you like a bug in court, they can't. 

I highly recommend this film: "The Judge". Great flick!

Well, they can hire the $25,000 attorney, but that means if you don't have any money, they'd have to pay for YOU to have a $25,000 attorney, too. 

The point is, don't let your lack of money or lower income prevent you from seeking the legal assistance you need. 

Louis Schneider's Blog - April 20, 2016.

We all know DUI is bad, but what if you get more than one?

Sometimes Good People Make Poor Decisions

...and sometimes, people mess up more than once. 

"To err is human", as the old saying goes, but what happens to you if you've "erred" more than once with regard to DUI?

Aside from wondering if inanimate objects around your home are secretly giving you judgmental looks...

OOOoooo! You Nasty Man!!

... you may find yourself in serious trouble with the Courts. Everything in life is (or is supposed to be) a balance. For every "give" there is likely a commensurate "take". What that means here in Las Vegas is that our 'round-the-clock bars, clubs and casinos come at the cost of incredibly harsh punishments for driving under the influence of alcohol (among other things).

So what options are there - aside from a harsh prison sentence - for repeat DUI Offenders in Vegas? 

FELONY DUI COURT

In Nevada, if you get arrested for DUI 3 times within 7 years, you will be facing Felony charges and you stand a good chance of actually going to prison. However there is one option - Felony DUI Court. 

Felony DUI Court is a lengthy, intensive and (I'm not going to lie to you) very expensive program. It is not fun, however, depending on your preferences, you may want it over communal showers, government issued clothing and a mattress that's as thin as a matzah.

Although the SOP (Serious Offender Program) might be able to keep you out of prison, it is very strict. People who enroll in, or are sentenced to SOP can expect to:

• Be on house arrest for at least 6 months at the beginning of the program. During this time you will wear a GPS enabled ankle monitor and will only be allowed to leave your home during certain times of the day and only for certain reasons. You may go to work, court, a doctor, or a grocery store, for example, but you should expect to keep a written log detailing, down to the minute, where you've gone. You will likely also be expected to keep receipts of any store you visit as proof that you were actually there. You also must pay to be on house arrest. Fees range from $6-$20 per day for this.

• Be under Prohibition. As you can probably expect, if you are in serious trouble for alcohol-related crimes, the Court is NOT going to let you drink. At all. Not one drop. To that end, you may be required to wear a SCRAM bracelet. 

  

  This ain't Louis Vuitton

  This fancy little device attaches to your ankle. (You know, the other ankle, since you'll already have your GPS House Arrest bracelet on one already.) The SCRAM bracelet tests your skin and sweat for any alcohol coming from you and it WILL detect if you have ANYTHING to drink. Included inconveniences: you must sit near a power outlet for three hours each day to recharge the SCRAM bracelet; you must physically report to the SCRAM office three times per week so they can download the stored data, and you must pay a daily fee to wear the SCRAM bracelet. 

• have a Breath Interlock Device (BID) installed on your vehicle. You must pay for this device's installation and you must pay a monthly fee for the privilege of having it in your car. You must blow into this device each and every time you start your car (say goodbye to mouthwash with alcohol in it). If you think you're going to be sneaky, don't; the BID also has a camera installed, so having someone else blow into the device is not an option. You must also sign a document in which you agree that you WILL NOT DRIVE any other car. If you are caught driving a vehicle not equipped with a BID, you will be found in violation of the program and likely sentenced to prison. 

• attend weekly private counseling with a court-approved therapist or psychiatrist. This is at your own expense. 

• be required to attend two Alcoholics Anonymous meetings per week.

• be required to make weekly appearances in Court in the form of a "Status Check". This means that, once a week, you will have to stand in front of the Judge while s/he reviews your records provided by the SCRAM and BID and your counselors to make sure you haven't committed any violations. If there is a violation, you should hire legal representation to accompany you to Court to try and explain the violation and avoid prison time. 

• be required to abide by a curfew. This means that if your GPS ankle monitor shows that you're away from home after your curfew, they will come arrest you.

So, how long does this program last? 

(you may want to sit down.....)

SOP is a THREE YEAR PROGRAM. 

O.     M.     G.

You can expect to pay, overall, in the ballpark of $11,000 - $15,000 over the course of three years to be on this program. 

Is it better than going to prison? Well, that's for you to decide. SOP and its little brother MOP (Moderate Offenders Program) are expensive, embarrassing, inconvenient and extremely stressful. 

Even though I am a criminal defense attorney who makes money defending the accused in court, I would be extremely happy if everyone reading this blog would make a commitment to yourself that you will simply NEVER drive after you've been drinking and that when you plan on partying, you include a Designated Driver in your plans. 

It's simply not worth it. 

If you have been arrested and charged with DUI, feel free to give my office a call at:

702-435-2121. 

It's about time to end "debtor's prison".

News from the U.S. Justice Department

I was quite pleased to see this article in the news today. A relevant quote from the article"

The new guidance comes amid concerns that some local courts are effectively punishing poor people for their poverty by imposing crippling fines and fees that, when unpaid, can result in jail time.

It's about time that our court system stops punitively punishing people with excessive fines that they have no hope of paying, and then jailing them (thus preventing them from potentially finding work in order to have some sort of income) when they can't pay the fines.

Conspiracy - A cautionary tale.

Watergate? Princess Diana? 9-11? The Moon Landing?
Nope. Different conspiracy.

We're talking about Conspiracy to Commit a Crime, and how you might find yourself in trouble with "the man" more easily than you might have guessed. 

Here's a story. This is a true story, but the names have been changed/omitted to protect the privacy of the involved parties:

So there's this guy. He's young, 20's, smart, level-headed, has an above-average job as head of security at a clothing store inside one of the casinos, he has (had) plans to become a police officer one day. Great guy. We'll call him Phil.

Phil was hanging out with his buddies one night, doing what guys in their 20's do in Vegas.

Some of this: 

Oontz Oontz Oontz! 

And maybe some of this:

The Power of Booze compels you! The Power of BOOZE compels you!

Well, after the *ahem* above-referenced festivities, they got in the car, Phil being the responsible designated driver for his drunk buddies, and started to leave the casino parking garage. 

On the way out his buddy "Chuck" asks him to stop the car. Assuming that his friend was about to "summon the Earl", create a "technicolor yawn", or simply live up to his name, Phil stopped the car. Instead of "bending and sending", Chuck runs over to a convertible automobile parked with the top down and the back seat loaded with boxes containing as-yet-unknown booty... er... bounty. 

Chuck, being the low-life intoxicated person exercising questionable judgement that he was at the time, starts taking boxes out of the convertible. Phil, thinking his friend had lost his mind puts the car in park, gets out, and proceeds to ask his friend what the Chuck he's doing. 

Instead of answering, Chuck chucks a box at Phil. As a reflex, Phil catches it. Chuck runs to the car with another box and starts prompting Phil to get back in and drive. 

Being caught in a moment of disbelief, anxiety and confusion, Phil throws the box in the car, hops in and drives off. 

What did Phil just do? I'll tell you. In that one split-second of confusion Phil just committed Conspiracy to Commit Auto Burglary.

Phil was later found (seriously, the security cameras in Vegas don't mess around), questioned, arrested and charged with a felony.

It's that easy.

Now, Phil's job is gone, his dreams of ever being in law enforcement are gone and he may or may not do some prison time. He will almost certainly be on probation for a while. 

I don't tell you these things to depress you or scare you. It's just that most people go through their lives unaware of how quickly some very serious things can happen. 

If you have been questioned by the police or charged with a crime, please get legal representation NOW!

Feel free to call our office at 702-435-2121 or visit us at www.lcslawfamily.com

Today's topic, Larceny from Person (aka Pickpocket)

PICKPOCKETS IN LAS VEGAS - BEWARE!

Accurate, yet politically incorrect advice from the New Orleans Police

What is pickpocketing, legally? Is it really so bad? 

The answer to this is, yes, it really is that bad. Probably because Nevada draws in so many tourists, our legal system takes a very dim view of said tourists falling victim to thieves, so much so that they've made pickpocketing (legally known as "Larceny from (a) Person) a felony, without regard to the value of the item taken. 

As is the theme of this blog, I'd like to explain to you what that means in the real world. For example, let's say you are sitting at a bar and you pay for your drink with a $10 and you get $1.86 back in change. (Those Vegas prices!) You don't immediately pick up your change because you have important drinking to get to and then you get distracted by your Tinder app. The next time you look up at the bar, your change has pulled a Criss Angel and vanished! (I just googled him... do you realize that he's 48 years old! I thought he was like 37... anyway...)

Now, is this irritating? Yes. Is it illegal? Sure. But someone just stole $1.86 off a bar top, we're not talking about a serious crime here. Misdemeanor theft or petit larceny at best IF you can even find the perpetrator. 

However...

Let's say that you had immediately put your change in your back pocket before your Tinder notification buzzed you into distraction and then this happens!

Seen here: the elusive butt-ninja uses a portion of her cunning.

If someone, anyone, (regardless of butt-ninja status): Steals, takes, or carries away without permission, from the person of another, any property, with the intent to deprive the owner permanently thereof then they've just committed a felony. Even if it was only that one, single, bourbon-dampened, crumpled dollar bill (that's probably been places that would haunt your dreams).

Another example:

A lady walks into a restroom and sets her old $25 purse on the floor of the stall, the purse has a couple inexpensive items of makeup and a $50 camera inside, suddenly a hand reaches under and grabs the purse. This would be misdemeanor Petit Larceny (it's a misdemeanor because the value of the purse combined with the items inside is less than $650)

But...

If someone snatches a the exact same purse from this woman's shoulder - Felony

_________________________________________________________________________

Basically if someone* steals anything off your body, from your hand, or from your pocket, even if it's a pack of gum, they've committed a Felony. 

*Now obviously this doesn't apply if you're being detained by the police or casino security and they empty your pockets without your permission, let's not be silly! Notice that part of the legal-ese that says that the person taking the property must be taking it with the intent to deprive you of it permanently. If you're intoxicated and unruly and security scoops you up and puts you in "casino jail", they're going to empty your pockets. Please don't try to hire a lawyer and claim that all the casino security guards 'robbed' you because they took stuff out of your pockets**

**sadly we have to add this part because it's really happened.