Whether you are applying for a job, a volunteer opportunity, a place to live, or even to adopt a child, you may be requested to share your criminal history. This can be scary if the crimes of your past no longer define who you are today. It’s natural to worry what might still be on your criminal history and how the person requesting it might interpret the information. Below are some questions you may have if you need to provide a criminal background check and what to do if you need help challenging the results or expunging your record.

Whether you destroy a valued possession of a partner in a domestic dispute or deface public property as part of a protest, you could be charged with criminal mischief. Additionally, destroying your own property for insurance money or recklessly causing a substantial interruption to structures like public utilities, health care facilities, or government operations is also considered criminal mischief.

With tensions rising in seemingly every area of life, it’s not a surprise that criminal charges for hate crimes have also increased. According to statistics from the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, there were 46 hate crime incidents in Utah in 2020. In 2019 there were only 18. One of the major factors in determining whether a crime is charged as a hate crime is intent. Fighting against accusations based on your intent can be difficult, but the expert criminal defense lawyers at Brown, Bradshaw, and Moffat can help. Below are three questions you may have about hate crimes and the associated charges in Utah.

After you’ve been charged with a crime and hire a lawyer, you will likely have questions about how much it will cost to defend your case. At Brown, Bradshaw & Moffat, we will do everything we can to ensure you receive professional representation at a fair rate. Here are a few common questions you may have about paying for your legal defense and how we handle payments at our office.

If you are the subject of a federal crime investigation, chances are you won’t know until the prosecution has already gathered most of the evidence. You should find an experienced lawyer to defend you quickly, because once federal agents have gathered their evidence, they will try to get a confession out of you. Your best rule of thumb is to use your right to remain silent around any federal officers because they may use what you say at any time as a confession.

In many cases, you may not know that law enforcement has been working on a criminal investigation against you until they show up with a search warrant. This means your home or place of business—and the people living or working there—could be subject to a stressful, unexpected situation.

When it comes to the laws governing the roads in Utah, most of the time a crime such as speeding or rolling through a stop sign will only result in an infraction and a fine. However, there are situations and circumstances where traffic crimes are more severe and are classified as a misdemeanor or felony. Here are eight Utah traffic crimes that are more severe than an infraction.

No one wants to be remembered by the mistakes they made as a child. In Utah, it is possible to expunge (seal) your juvenile record if you meet certain eligibility requirements. Properly expunging a juvenile record means that your earlier juvenile court proceedings are considered never to have occurred.

For defendants in federal cases, an important part of the criminal sentencing process is the presentence investigation. The investigation becomes a report that helps the legal system determine anything from the length of a sentence to the facility where the sentence is served.