Q: If I was facing a charge and it got dismissed..then a month later charged with the same charge..what should I do?
A:
You need to hire an attorney or, if you cannot afford one, apply for the services of a free attorney at the Law Office of the Public Defender. Often when a charge gets dismissed, it is dismissed "without prejudice" which means the prosecutor can refile it. This dismissal and refiling usually happens in one of two ways. First, the prosecutor must wait for more evidence before proceeding forward with the case such as a DUI case in which there is not breathalyzer result and the prosecutor must wait for the laboratory results of a blood test to determine whether the driver was legally intoxicated.
The more frequent situation is where the prosecutor allows the charge to be dismissed in the lower court and then obtains a grand jury indictment and files the felony case in the district court. But, again, you should get a free consultation with a lawyer who you are trying to hire, and let him read your papers and explain what happened and the next step in the criminal process.
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