I've represented athletes now for the last 26 years in handling criminal defense cases across Los Angeles county in all of the 38 courthouses. I myself was an athlete in both high school and college. I have a pretty good repor with those people who are out there who have phenomenal athletic skills and end up getting themselves in trouble.
Criminal Charges Affecting Athletic Programs
A lot of times when you have a criminal case pending against you it can affect your athletics — whether you're a collegiate athlete, whether you're in high school or college — or even a professional athlete and you have a criminal case pending against you.
You want to get endorsements and some people are trying to get into a college. I've represented some high-level high school athletes and some college athletes who are greatly impacted if they end up with a conviction on their record, doing any jail time or being placed on probation. Sometimes their travel can be restricted.
I think I'm pretty well-suited in Los Angeles county to represent those athletes charged with criminal offenses. What we do is we have you come in in the privacy of my office. If that's not feasible for you because you're traveling, you're in a different state and are not available, we can obviously meet via Face time or just over the telephone.
I do like to get that person contact with my client though because I think that's important in their representation to have an attorney who knows about them, who has a feel for their personality and who they are.
Prosecutors Might Give You the Benefit of Doubt
A lot of time prosecutors — especially if they know that you're a seasoned athlete and you have some good opportunities — they're going to try to give you the benefit of the doubt if they can in trying to resolve your matter.
Obviously, if you have a case where you're not guilty and you're going to take the case to trial, we don't really need to talk to the prosecutors about giving you a good resolution.
We're either trying to convince them to dismiss the case because they really don't have the evidence against you or we're simply preparing the case for trial to try to beat them.
I think the bottom line is, if you do have a criminal case you're going to want to get somebody who is going to fight for you — somebody who knows about the opportunities that you could lose as an athlete.
A lot of people have great promising careers and they don't want to let this criminal charge stop them from pursuing their athletic career — stop them from going to a higher level school — even stop them in the future when they're not an athlete anymore and they want to get a job out in the workforce or as some sort of commentator.
Los Angeles Criminal Defense Attorney
Whatever the case may be, if you have problems and are an athlete and have a criminal case pending against you in LA county, come talk to somebody who has worked for the prosecutors, the District Attorney's office in the early 1990's.
I also worked for a Superior Court judge in the early 1990's and then in 1994 I hung my shingle out and I've been representing athletes and many people charged with crimes since 1994 on the defense side.
I know how to strategize cases. I know how to win cases. I know how to negotiate cases. So, pick up the phone; have your agent pick up the phone, however you want to handle it. Let's talk about it and see what we can do to help you.
Hedding Law Firm is a criminal defense law firm located in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles County at 16000 Ventura Blvd #1208 Encino, CA 91436. We are also located at 633 West Fifth Street Los Angeles, CA 90071. Contact us for a free case evaluation at (213) 542-0979.
