Richmond Unlawful Wounding Penalties
Unlawful wounding is taken seriously in Richmond. An unlawful wounding offense is a Class Six felony. Richmond unlawful wounding penalties carry anywhere from no time to five years in jail and up to $2,500 in court costs and fines. If you have been charged with an unlawful wounding offense, consult a seasoned unlawful wounding attorney that could mitigate the penalties that you face.
What to Do Following an Unlawful Wounding Charge
The first thing a person should do is contact a lawyer. The second thing that they should do is write down everything that they can remember from the incident. However, it is going to be a little different when it comes to assault, as well as malicious wounding if a person does not remember what happened. The third thing they can do is consult the lawyer, listen and do whatever their lawyer advises, and do not talk to the police. Those are the most important things to do when a person is charged with this particular offense.
Where Unlawful Wounding Cases Are Heard
Generally, unlawful woundings are first heard in the general district court where a person has their preliminary hearing. After a person’s preliminary hearing, the case is subsequently certified to the circuit court. Then, the circuit court judge or a jury will determine guilt or innocence. Until that, they originate in the general district court, but are heard, tried, and adjudicated in the circuit court.
Probation for Unlawful Wounding Offenses
Probation is one of the likely Richmond unlawful wounding penalties that a person may face. For many in the city of Richmond, if a person is convicted of a felony offense, whether they get jail time or not after the conviction, they are placed on probation for a tremendous amount of time. What that means is that a person is on probation until they successfully complete probation.
Probation normally lasts up to six months, provided that a person does everything they are supposed to. However, even though they may be off of supervised probation, they do have a timeframe in which they have unsupervised probation, depending on the charge whether unlawful wounding.
Unsupervised Probation
An unsupervised probation period is normally around five years. During a five-year period, a person cannot get in any new trouble nor have new misdemeanor arrests or convictions. If a person does, then any suspended sentence or any suspended jail time that may be over their head, the judge can issue a show cause. Then a person comes back into court and explains to the judge why they should not have to go back to jail or go to jail and serve some or the entire suspended jail sentence from the previous unlawful wounding.
Working With a Richmond Unlawful Wounding Attorney
There are certain consequences for an individual if they are charged with unlawful wounding. Not only will they face Richmond unlawful wounding penalties, they will also have a felony offense on their record. If a person hires a lawyer, the lawyer could use the tools at their disposal to defend an individual and also to mitigate the penalties that they face. Those who have been charged should speak with a skilled attorney that could advocate for them.
