FAQ

Our office hours are Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM.

We are based in Shelton, CT and provide service to clients throughout the state of Connecticut.

Attorney Paz is a licensed attorney who was named one of National Trial Lawyers “Top 40 Under 40” for criminal defense for 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 and Super Lawyers Rising Stars in Criminal Defense for 2020, 2021, and 2022.

Attorney Paz works directly with clients in a fair, caring, and non-judgemental way in order to defend their rights. She is an aggressive and experienced criminal defense attorney with

strong and effective negotiation skills. She has over 10 years of industry experience and has achieved positive outcomes for hundreds of clients in cases ranging from motor vehicle tickets to murder. She provides free consultations so that you can see if she’s the right person to take your case.

Bond is a financial condition of release while your case is pending in court. There are also non-financial conditions of release that a court may set, such as abiding by a protective order and attending treatment. The purpose of bond is two-fold: to ensure your presence in court and to protect the victim and/or the community from you if you are dangerous. Important to determining these factors are your ties to the community, prior criminal history and whether you have ever failed to appear previously, and the severity of the charges. I often have clients who call me to say that they have compared their bonds to bonds of other inmates and their charges are far more serious but their bonds are lower. Why? The answer is that the bonds will vary from courthouse to courthouse and Judge to Judge. Some judges are notorious for their high bonds.  Some judges severely dislike certain types of cases and so will put higher bonds on than would another.  You may file a Motion for Bond Modification every 45 days that you are incarcerated and unable to post bond while the cases are pending to have a judge re-review your conditions of release.

There are two types of orders: a protective order and a restraining order. A protective order is an order that is automatically by statute issued by a criminal court judge after a defendant has been arrested on a domestic violence offense and protects the domestic violence complainant. In some cases, there will be a dual-arrest, where both parties are arrested. In that circumstance, both parties would receive dueling protective orders. However, if only one party is arrested and the other is not, only the defendant will have a protective order issued against him or her, protecting the other party. The other party, then, has no prohibition on contacting the defendant. A civil restraining order is an order that any party can apply for in civil court alleging that you have once been in an intimate relationship with the respondent and that party has engaged in threatening, abusive conduct or physical violence towards you. The civil court would then set it for a hearing, at which point you may present arguments as to why a civil restraining order should be granted. If granted, it has the same effect as a criminal protective order and would prohibit the other party from communicating with you. Unlike a protective order, a civil restraining order has a set expiration time. A protective order will remain in effect until further order of the criminal court.

First of all, never speak to the police. I can't reiterate this enough.

Second, failure of police to read you your rights does not automatically result in the case getting thrown out. "Reading you your rights" originates from the 5th Amendment to the Constitution, which states "No person shall... be compelled in any criminal case, to be a witness against himself...."  From this Amendment, the Supreme Court in Miranda v. Arizona found that statements of a person cannot be used against him unless he is informed of his rights pursuant to the Constitution and then waives them. There are two caveats to this (as there usually are!): the police are required to inform a person of his or her rights only if 1) that person is in custody, AND 2) is under interrogation. Case law since Miranda analyzed at what points people are "in custody" and "under interrogation." A person is obviously "in custody" for Miranda purposes if they are under arrest. However, if a person is not formally under arrest, there is an analysis to undertake as to whether a "reasonable person would have felt they are free to leave."  Case law for whether a person is under interrogation includes analyses as to whether police are "asking questions likely to elicit an incriminating response." There are many circumstances where you encounter police in your day-to-day life where you are not in custody and also under interrogation.  There are many voluntary encounters with police that would not require Miranda warnings. Under those circumstances, there is no Miranda violation.  

Finally, if there is a Miranda violation, what is the remedy? The remedy is NOT automatic dismissal of the case. The remedy is suppression of the statement from being admissible against you at trial. If the State determines, after analyzing its evidence, that it has other evidence to introduce at trial to argue your guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, the prosecution may still proceed.