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Criminal defense is the work of representing someone the government has accused of breaking the law. It runs from minor charges like a first DUI or disorderly conduct up through serious felonies, and it covers every stage of a case: the investigation, the charge, plea negotiations, trial, sentencing, and appeals.

One thing sets criminal cases apart from almost every other area of law. The other side is the state, with police, prosecutors, and public resources behind it. To balance that, the system starts from a presumption that a person is innocent until the government proves otherwise, and it must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. That single rule shapes everything a defense attorney does. What is at stake is different too. Not money, but liberty, a permanent record, and the parts of life a record reaches: work, housing, licenses, and immigration status.

A criminal case starts one of two ways: an arrest, or a citation that directs a person to appear in court. Either way, the decision to file charges belongs to a prosecutor, not the police, and the formal charge is what starts the court process.

The first court date is the arraignment, where the charges are read and the accused enters a plea of guilty, not guilty, or no contest. From there a case moves through pretrial hearings, where evidence is exchanged and motions are argued. Most cases resolve with a plea agreement rather than a trial. If a case does go to trial, the state presents its evidence first and the defense can test it. Which court hears the case depends on the charge: misdemeanors are handled in municipal or justice courts, while felonies go to the superior court.

How the process unfolds depends heavily on the charge and the facts, and an attorney can explain what it would look like for a specific situation.

Several protections apply the moment someone is accused, and they come from the U.S. Constitution, so they hold in Arizona as everywhere else. A person has the right to remain silent, the right to a lawyer, the right to be told the charges, and the right to a trial by jury for serious offenses. The government carries the entire burden of proof. The accused does not have to prove innocence.

The right to a lawyer does not depend on being able to afford one. The Sixth Amendment guarantees counsel, and the Supreme Court's decision in Gideon v. Wainwright established that it extends to people who cannot pay. Arizona reaches further than the federal minimum: under its rules of criminal procedure, a court appoints a lawyer at public expense for anyone who faces the possibility of jail and cannot afford one, with an exception only for petty offenses that carry no chance of jail.

How and when these rights apply to a specific situation is a question for a defense attorney, not a website.

Arizona sorts crimes by severity. Felonies, the more serious category, fall into six classes, with class 1 the most serious, reserved for first and second degree murder, and class 6 the least. Misdemeanors fall into three classes, with class 1 the most serious. The line is not always fixed: in some non-dangerous cases, a class 6 felony can be designated a class 1 misdemeanor.

Felony sentencing works from a presumptive term set for each class. A judge can move below it, a mitigated sentence, or above it, an aggravated sentence, when specific factors are present, and the ranges grow longer for offenses the law calls dangerous and for people with prior felony convictions.

DUI shows how the gradations work in practice. A standard DUI rests on a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 or on being impaired to the slightest degree, which is the actual statutory language. Penalties climb with the reading: extreme DUI at 0.15, super extreme at 0.20. A third DUI within seven years, or a DUI with a child in the vehicle, becomes an aggravated DUI, which is a felony. Even a first standard DUI carries a mandatory minimum jail term, fines, license consequences, and an ignition interlock device.

Time limits also turn on classification. Under A.R.S. § 13-107, the state generally has seven years to bring most felony charges and one year for misdemeanors, while the most serious offenses, such as homicide and violent sexual assault, have no time limit at all.

Where a particular charge falls, and what it carries, is something an attorney can lay out plainly.

For the most part, Arizona does not erase criminal records, and the word expungement gets used loosely. Arizona offers three different remedies, and they are not the same thing.

A set-aside, under A.R.S. § 13-905, asks the court to vacate the judgment of guilt after a sentence is complete. The conviction stays on the record but is marked as set aside.

Record sealing, under A.R.S. § 13-911 and available since the start of 2023, goes further. It removes an eligible record from public view, so most employers and landlords can no longer see it, though law enforcement and the courts still can. Eligibility depends on the offense and on a waiting period that runs from two to ten years after a sentence is finished.

True expungement, the kind that erases a record, exists in Arizona only for certain marijuana offenses made legal under Proposition 207, through A.R.S. § 36-2862.

Which remedy fits a given record, if any, is a question for an attorney.

Criminal defense is usually billed as a flat fee for a defined stage of the case, or by the hour, and the amount depends on the charge, its complexity, and how far the case goes. Unlike injury cases, criminal work is never taken on contingency. Arizona's ethics rules flatly prohibit a contingent fee for defending a criminal case, so the no-fee-unless-you-win model does not exist here.

There is also a public option. Anyone who faces jail and cannot afford a lawyer is entitled to appointed counsel, a public defender, at the court's expense, with eligibility based on financial need. Public defenders are licensed attorneys, and many are experienced trial lawyers, though their caseloads are often heavy. Hiring a private attorney is a decision about availability, time, and fit, not about whether a person is entitled to a defense at all.

Fees and scope are set in the agreement between you and the attorney you hire, and an attorney explains the cost before any engagement begins.

A lawyer referral service connects people with attorneys who have already been screened against objective standards. The model has run for decades, mostly through bar associations, and the American Bar Association publishes the model standards that legitimate referral services are built to meet.

Criminal cases reward getting the right lawyer quickly. Charges carry deadlines, the specifics matter, and a DUI lawyer is not automatically the right person for a fraud charge or a violent felony. A referral service built to ABA standards confirms what a person under pressure cannot easily check: state bar standing, malpractice insurance, real experience with the kind of charge at hand, and a court history consistent with that experience. LegalHelp.ai runs that screening on every attorney in the network before they ever receive a referral. The attorneys stay independent, and when you hire one, the representation is between you and them.

Matching through LegalHelp.ai costs the consumer nothing. The service is paid by the attorneys in the network, not by the people it matches. For someone who was just arrested, or whose family member was, the practical difference is speed and footing: the search happens once, against real standards, and the first conversation starts with your case instead of a stranger's resume.