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Illegal Possession Of Fireworks In Los Angeles County

Health & Safety Code §12500 to §12728 – The Legal Use and Illegal Use of Fireworks in Los Angeles and also California

The bottom line in Los Angeles County, fireworks have been deemed illegal. You cannot possess or sell fireworks in Los Angeles County and if you do, you will likely be prosecuted. So why do we see a bunch of people shooting fireworks off on the 4th of July? It's probably because they either have a permit to shoot the fireworks off or they're just ignoring the law and assume that nobody's going to enforce it and they're not going to get caught.

Is Illegal Possession If Fireworks A Felony Or A Misdemeanor?

Typically, most illegal possession of fireworks is going to be charged as a misdemeanor and you could be facing up to a year in the county jail in Los Angeles. However, if you're possessing significant amounts of fireworks, making a lot of money off the sale of fireworks, you could be charged as a felony. You're looking up to three years in prison.

That's a sixteen, two years – three years charge range for a felony and I've done a bunch of felony cases where people are making a lot of money on the illegal sale of fireworks. Obviously, the problem is people are getting hurt – blowing their hands off, blowing their eyes out and other horrible injuries from fireworks – so they've been outlawed in Los Angeles County and if somebody is caught selling them, they're certainly going to be prosecuted. If they're selling them to a large degree and making a lot of money, or possess a lot of fireworks, the authorities are going to assume that they're selling them and then obviously, they're going to prosecute them.

So, if you're caught related to a bunch of fireworks, you're going to need a good criminal defense attorney who has been down this road before and knows how to handle these cases and knows how to counter some of the tactics that the prosecutors use with the judge to try to get prison sentences against people.

Really, it's public safety that is at issue. So, if we can show that you're not a danger to the public and that even though you do possess fireworks, they're not the type of fireworks that are going to cause any significant damage to anybody, or you were just going to shoot them off yourself from a safe location, then obviously we're in a much stronger position.

If on the other hand, if we're in a position where we can't show these things and the person is selling them and making big money and the authorities are concerned people are going to get hurt, another issue even in Los Angeles County and other rural counties, is that you could cause a fire – set somebody's house on fire, shoot some fireworks into some brush that causes a big fire.

I've seen cases where people are messing around with fireworks and they light somebody's house on fire and people are injured and killed. Now the authorities are going to come after you for a felony. You're going to be looking at going to prison and you've got some big trouble.

The reality is that the police know that people are shooting fireworks off all over Los Angeles County even though it's illegal.

They're usually not going to mess with people unless they're doing it out in public where it could catch a fire or they're shooting off a type of dangerous fireworks that are not just little ones that kids can shoot off like sparklers and various other safe and sane fireworks. If that's the case, a lot of times the authorities aren't going to mess around with that. They've got bigger fish to fry.

But if you're doing stuff that's perceived as dangerous and it relates to fireworks, you're going to get arrested, you're going to get prosecuted, you're going to have to post a bail and you're going to need a good criminal defense attorney. You don't want fireworks to mark-up your record and cause you to go to county jail or even state prison.

California's State Fireworks Law

So, if you've got a case where you're charged with possession or sales of fireworks and they're using the Health & Safety Code 12500 in Los Angeles to prosecute you, come and sit down with me. We'll go over everything.

We'll get down to the nitty-gritty of what happened with your case and why you are possessing the fireworks and try to show your version of events, your story, the fact that you're not a dangerous person, that you shouldn't have to have a felony on your record.

There are all sorts of tactics we can use with character letters, witnesses that know you and just by the surrounding circumstances of the possession of the fireworks. So, if you have a firework case in LA County, let's sit down. Give me the story. Give it to me truthfully.

Don't put a spin on it, so we can get down to the nitty-gritty as to how the case is going to be handled, what we're going to do to help you and give you an idea of what you're facing, and give you an idea also of what you can do to help yourself, so that an illegal possession of fireworks case does not haunt you and stay with you for the rest of your life.

So, there are also defenses to these cases, depending again on the circumstances to the case. So, that's where you have to get to a criminal defense attorney that's been handling these types of cases where fireworks have been an issue and know the defenses and know how to use them. They're real fact-specific, meaning obviously we have to look at the facts of your case before we can have a real good feel for what the defense is going to be.

For more information on Illegal Possession Of Fireworks In LA County, a free initial consultation is your best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (213) 542-0979 today.

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