Criminal defense attorney for college student in Pittsburgh

With classes starting and the lives of college-goers in Pittsburgh in full swing, Western Pennsylvania criminal defense attorney Gary Gerson would like to address college-aged kids who find themselves in trouble with the law. As a Pittsburgh criminal defense attorney who regularly represents college students from Pitt, Duquesne, Carlow, CCAC, and Carnegie Mellon who are charged with simple assault, public intoxication, or other alcohol-related crimes, Pittsburgh Police will be closely following campus life this time of year. In Pittsburgh, assault is a misdemeanor that is punishable by up to 180 days in jail and/or a fine of up to $1000. You might be thinking that since you have never been arrested before in your entire life, there is no reason that you would be arrested now. The problem is that the scenario that typically leads to an arrest for simple assault is not what you would expect. Most often, I hear from college-aged clients who went to bar or night club with a few friends. At some point in the night, someone in the club gets drunk and starts acting rude to a person you’re with or someone else at the bar. You try to calmly and politely tell them to stop and leave you and your party alone, but when the other person doesn’t stop and punches are thrown, the situation can escalate to the point of arrests for assault. It might not matter whether you tried to defend yourself or not, a bouncer does his or her job and throws you out of the club. Sometimes, they are so forceful in throwing you out that you get injured. After that, the police show up and asked what happened. You usually don’t a word in edgewise; instead, they ask the bouncer what happened. Police officers, for the most part, do what’s easy. They’re not likely to question further the people who the establishment’s bouncer says are guilty of beginning the scuffle. Not only would it complicate things for them, but it will also make their jobs much harder. Then you get arrested, booked, fingerprinted, and given a citation that you’re supposed to return to the courthouse a month or so later to, essentially, plead guilty to your charge and pay the according fine. Although this seems unfair, this is what happens in our city every night from August to December and January to May. The best thing you or your parents can do is contact a forceful, experienced attorney to advocate for you. At the Law Offices of Gary Gerson, we have been helping college students for more than twenty-five years. In that time, Attorney Gerson has helped thousands of young men and women find themselves on the right side of the law, when they assumed much less. Call Pittsburgh criminal defense lawyer Gary Gerson today for a free consultation at 412-219-6875.