An arrest or a charge in Baltimore City or Baltimore County
A criminal case starts before anyone has explained what you are charged with. After an arrest, a court commissioner reviews the charges and decides whether you are held or released, and on what conditions. If you are still held, a judge of the District Court of Maryland reviews bail at the next hearing, and what has been put in front of that judge by then can shape the conditions. The first call to a lawyer is worth making before you talk to anyone about the facts.
Where the case goes depends on the charge. Many misdemeanors and some felonies are heard in the District Court of Maryland, while the more serious felonies are tried in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City or the Circuit Court for Baltimore County. A charge can also be federal, brought in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. The firm describes itself as civil and criminal law attorneys, and its attorneys were admitted to practice in that federal court, so the first conversation is about which court and which charging document you are actually facing.
From the Public Defender's Office to private defense: what happens before trial
The firm's own 2017 attorney profile records that Larry E. Jordan began in 1975 at the Baltimore City Public Defender's Office, handling major felony cases, and that his practice was criminal law. It is history, not a promise about your case. It describes where the firm's criminal work comes from: years in the courthouse learning how a charge is built, what the State has to show, and where a file is thin.
Before trial, the work is paper and procedure. In a felony the case can have a preliminary hearing in the District Court, where a judge decides whether the State has shown enough to send it on. Then comes discovery: the police reports, witness statements, laboratory results and any body camera recordings that the State turns over under Maryland's rules, which your attorney reads against what you remember. Motions follow, such as a motion to suppress evidence from a stop or a search, or to challenge a statement made to police.
Each step has its own hearing and its own deadline, and a missed one can close a door that stays closed. That is why the office asks you to bring every paper you were handed at arrest, release or service: the charging document, the bail or bond paper, the notice of your court date, and the name of any lawyer who has already appeared for you.
Plea, trial and protecting your record
Most criminal cases reach a decision point on a plea. The State may offer one, and whether to accept it, ask for different terms or go to trial is your decision, not your lawyer's. A sound plea discussion starts with what the State can actually prove, what the sentencing range is on the charge, and what a conviction does to work, licenses, immigration status and housing, before any paper is signed.
If the case is tried, it is tried to a judge or, where the law allows, a jury. Jury selection, cross-examination of the State's witnesses, objections and closing argument are craft that a lawyer prepares for in the weeks before, not on the morning of. After a verdict or a sentence there may be post-trial motions and an appeal to the Appellate Court of Maryland. Strict deadlines apply to each, so call promptly.
A record follows a person long after the case ends. Depending on how a case concludes, Maryland law allows some records to be expunged or shielded, and eligibility turns on the charge, the disposition and the time that has passed. An attorney can look at your docket and tell you whether that applies to you, and what the court will want filed to ask.
