If you believe that you are in jeopardy of being charged with a criminal case, a lot of times there are some simple indicators that might give you a clue as to whether the actions would be considered criminal in a court case; the first of which is an arrest. If you have been arrested, you might be charged with a crime. In cases such as these it is important to speak to a legitimate skilled legal advisor in order to decide if your case is criminal. If an attorney seems to think so, the next step would be to discuss what defenses would be acceptable to a jury or a judge.

Most criminal charges start with an arrest; once an arrest is made, a police officer has to write a report. Once the report is written, the person who decides to press charges would then file the motion which then goes to a preliminary hearing with a grand jury (this is also referred to as an indictment); when the charges are presented at an indictment it will be decided through a judge rather than a grand jury.

It is the prosecutor’s job is to decide if the charges are criminal; when the prosecutor receives a police report, he is able to file charges. The police report will have pertinent information the prosecutor needs in order to make a detailed decision about whether to pursue a criminal case. This vital information includes, but is not limited to, the name, date, addresses, witnesses, environmental conditions and other information on the day of the alleged crime. The prosecutor can decide the following three courses of action; he may choose to disregard the case; decide that the case should be subject to a felony or misdemeanor and file a complaint against the citizen which would go to trial; or decide that the charges should only be a felony in which case he would bring the circumstantial and direct evidence in front of a grand jury. It would be the grand jury's decision from that point fourth to decide if the citizen should be charged.

In most cases, there must be evidence against a citizen to show that he or she has violated the rules or regulations of the state or nation. Infractions are the smallest charges and usually do not require strong punitive actions whereas misdemeanors result in more serious charges. The harshest punitive actions are reserved for the more serious crimes and are labeled as felonies. If a prosecutor decides that there is enough evidence to file the claim, whereas a conviction is usually ruled by a judge or jury; a conviction comes with the unanimous vote of the 12 juror members who decide that the crime was committed without a reasonable doubt. It is important to know that it is your right as an American citizen to be innocent until proven guilty.

In California, a prosecutor must file charges within 48 hours of the arrest, though a more standard amount of time in which a prosecutor usually must file a criminal charge is within a 72 hour period. A prosecutor's job usually requires them to be fair and just when deciding to prosecute, yet they must adhere to certain laws that a state legislature would approve of should the crime be committed in that state. Sometimes a prosecutor will choose not to file a case even if a conviction looks promising; they may decide to press less punitive charges should the person appeared to be a one time offender. Therefore, if this is your first offense, depending upon the judgment of the prosecutor, there might not be any criminal charges. If there are, it is necessary to seek a skilled attorney who may be able to get to a less severe sentence.