The Impact of Your Arrest

Your arrest on criminal charges can have a profound impact on your life, from your family to your ability to work — even if you are never convicted of any charges.

Attorney David J. Utter, The Claiborne Firm:

There’s just no more important part of anybody’s life than when the state wants to take your freedom away.

I come to this work from a civil rights background. I come to this work from a reducing-and-eliminating-mass-incarceration background. I know – more than most people – just how horrible prisons and jails are. I know that it’s just nothing that people should be forced to go through.

We talk to people all the time who have had their rights violated by police. We talk to people all the time that are sitting in jail, feeling hopeless and helpless.

And what we offer is attention to your case, understanding exactly why it is so important to you that someone is fighting for you, and minimizing the impact it has on your life.