A highly qualified Sugar Land criminal lawyer will tell you that it is becoming much more common for employees to find themselves embroiled in civil matters with their employers that later take on criminal overtones. Whenever this type of scenario unfolds, individuals should seriously consider hiring their own private lawyers to fully protect their own rights. Furthermore, prosecutors will even try to get large entities to basically "turn" on their own individual employees in exchange for not prosecuting the larger entity or its various officers.
When mere civil litigation is involved, plaintiffs are far more interested in suing the larger entity than the individual employees due to the "deep pocket" theory of recovery. It basically holds that when it is appropriate, parties should always try to sue the defendants with the greatest financial resources. The legal concept of respondeat superior can help protect many employees if they've only committed acts that were within the normal, lawful course of their duties - the employer is generally held liable for such acts.
How Joint Defense Agreements Can Help Protect Individual Parties
Once a case involves numerous defendants, it is hard to know which party will need to hire his or her own lawyer. Sometimes, it is a good idea to get everyone to sign a document that is known as a joint defense agreement. This type of document requires all signatories to maintain a certain degree of confidentiality about matters learned as a consequence of their joint defense needs. Of course, people can still try to turn on each other later; however, this type of agreement can be in many people's best interests.
A Sugar Land criminal lawyer will tell you that if you are one of the completely innocent parties, you will probably want to avoid signing a joint defense agreement since you'll need to clearly distinguish your role in the various activities involved from those of the majority.
Who Should Pay Criminal Lawyer Fees?
If you and other employees clearly committed illegal acts all on your own, you will need to cover all of your own legal fees. However, when a larger entity, such as an employer, knows for a fact that the majority of the employees are free of any wrongdoing, it can be very wise to advance some funds to cover attorney fees. Of course, this is usually not required but it can go a long way toward convincing innocent employees that the employer has not turned its back on them.
Some people believe that when an employer provides highly skilled criminal lawyers to defend their employees, it clearly sends a message to prosecutors that the employer (or large entity) full believes in those it's seeking to defend. Should an employer offer to advance you any legal defense fees for a Sugar Land criminal lawyer, just be sure that the contract does not put restrictions on your right to tell the complete truth during all future proceedings.
If you need the help of a highly qualified Sugar Land criminal attorney, consider calling John Venza so he can put all of his legal expertise to work for you. The initial consultation is free, so call today.