Felony Defense

Felony Convictions

A felony conviction is a gravely serious matter. Not only may a felony conviction result in a lengthy prison sentence, but it can also produce long term legal consequences that may impact your life into the distant future. Primarily concerned with your civil rights and citizenship privileges, these consequences may include a loss of voting rights, exclusion from obtaining certain licenses, i.e., a visa, prohibition of possessing or purchasing a firearm, ineligibility for serving in public office, and also the ineligibility for jury duty. Due to these ramifications, it’s important that an individual charged with a felony be represented by an experienced felony attorney.

If you are being charged with a felony, you probably feel like you no longer have control over your legal situation. Although you may feel helpless, there are two extremely critical things you can do to wrestle fate back into your own hands. The first step is to find an experienced, well-qualified felony attorney that you feel comfortable with. The second step is to not procrastinate on the previous step. The decision to hire a felony attorney is an important one, and therefore should not be rushed; however, the sooner you retain a criminal defense attorney, the sooner the attorney can begin building your defense, studying your case, negotiating with prosecutors, and strategizing to obtain the best possible results.

Experienced in Felony Litigation

Michael VanDerZee, our Lakeland criminal defense firm’s principle litigator, is well qualified to be your felony attorney. Michael is a former Florida state prosecutor and served as a lead felony prosecutor for three years. In this role, he handled a wide variety of felony cases ranging from murder, aggravated assault, gun crimes, DUI manslaughter, and drug trafficking. Michael worked these cases through the entire criminal process starting with the investigation, through to trial, and final sentencing.This experience in prosecuting felony charges gives him a full perspective of how the state will build a case against you, and he is therefore able to anticipate the strategy needed to obtain for you the most positive results possible.