TWO OF OUR ATTORNEYS
USED TO WORK THE OTHER SIDE
George Neskis spent four years as an Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney for the City of Norfolk. Cole Roberts began his career as a Public Defender here. Between them, they have watched a Norfolk case get charged, screened and prepared long before it ever reaches a defense file.
That is a practical advantage, not a relational one. It means knowing which files the Commonwealth quietly worries about. What a reduction in this court usually requires. How the General District docket really runs on the morning you’ve been told to appear, and how much of that morning you’ll spend waiting.
We handle misdemeanors and felonies in the Norfolk General District Court, the Circuit Court, and the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court — from the bond hearing through a jury verdict. Cole has tried Norfolk juries on charges from assault and battery to murder, which changes the arithmetic on a file. A prosecutor who expects a trial handles a case differently from one expecting a plea.
WHAT THAT GETS YOU
WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENS
AFTER AN ARREST IN NORFOLK
Most people we hear from have never been through this and have no idea what comes next. So: an arrest in Norfolk normally means a magistrate’s bond determination, then an arraignment in the General District Court, then either a trial date there or — if the charge is a felony — a preliminary hearing to decide whether the case is certified to a grand jury and on to the Circuit Court.
Each of those steps has a window in front of it where something useful can be done, and each window closes. Getting the discovery request in. Getting a bond argument prepared instead of improvised. Getting to a witness while they still remember clearly. What you cannot do is make up the time later.
That is the whole reason to call before the first hearing rather than after it. Nobody at this firm will tell you what you want to hear about a charge — but you will hear, on the first call, what the realistic range of outcomes looks like and what has to happen this week to protect the better end of it.
IN NORFOLK
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41,000+
criminal clients represented since 1995
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4
years one of our attorneys spent prosecuting for Norfolk
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65+
years practicing in Norfolk’s courts
CALL BEFORE THE FIRST HEARING
Not after. The days in between are the ones we can still use. Free, confidential, any hour — 757-622-3317.