Criminal Law
Criminal law is a system of laws designed to adjudicate crime and punish criminal wrongdoing. Whereas civil law concerns disputes between two individuals or organizations, criminal statutes are usually prosecuted by agents representing the State, such as district attorneys. Criminal laws differ widely across jurisdictions. In the United States, crimes are classified into four categories—infractions, misdemeanors, felony-misdemeanors, and felonies. Felonies are regarded as more serious and are usually punishable by a year or more of prison time, large fines, and potential forfeiture of property or material wealth. Other countries have very broad definitions of what constitutes a crime, while others have very narrow ones. For example, many countries define murder as killing someone intentionally, whereas other countries require proof of malice aforethought.
The practice of criminal defense is regarded as one of the most highly rewarding fields of practicable law. In theory, all it takes to start a criminal law practice is a law degree and admission to a state bar, access to a computer and a law library. However, meeting with clients in a local coffeeshop as opposed to a dedicated office will generally not exude a high level of professionalism. Deciding on a solo practice or a partnership is another consideration. Partnering with other lawyers can represent a value-add as costs can be split and casework divided along skill-based lines, such as litigation and research. In any case, a trust account or IOLTA (Interest on Lawyers Trust Account), account must be opened so the firm can accept client funds for retainers and subsequent criminal law payment for fees. Much of the time practices are run using on premise software or software-as-a-service (SaaS) to handle case files, record attorney and paralegal time, handle accounting and scheduling and deal with invoicing and billing.
Let Payment Integrator take care of your criminal law billing needs so you can concentrate on speedy, positive resolutions for your clients. Criminal defense practices can apply our industry-leading payment processing solutions to existing electronic billing systems and IOLTA accounts. With our frictionless integrations, client payments can be made electronically with credit cards and debit cards or through eCheck and ACH technologies automatically and post to client criminal law payment statements. Our hosted payment page (HPP) is perfect for creating live payment links to accompany client invoices for immediate payment. Pursuant to state jurisdiction, Payment Integrator will accept all major credit cards, debit cards, and enable the use of e-wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay. All of our criminal law payment acceptance methods are secure, P2PE, tokenized, and PCI-compliant.
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