Served with Grand Jury Sub­poena
If you are given a grand jury sub­poena, even a sub­poena direct­ing you to pro­vide doc­u­ments, you should imme­di­ately retain coun­sel. A grand jury sub­poena means there is an ongo­ing crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tion. You need to dis­cuss your involve­ment and role in a con­fi­den­tial set­ting with a qual­i­fied attor­ney. The attor­ney can help you decide what to do. It is best for even mere wit­nesses to con­sult with and obtain assis­tance from counsel.

Given “Tar­get Let­ter“
A so called “Tar­get Let­ter” informs you that you are being inves­ti­gated by a grand jury. Should you get such a let­ter, you must imme­di­ately retain coun­sel and invoke your right to remain silent, should offi­cers attempt to inter­view you. You will not be able to “talk you way out” of the prob­lem all by your­self. You need to talk with an attor­ney in a con­fi­den­tial setting.

Am I a “Sub­ject” of a Grand Jury Inves­ti­ga­tion?
Just because you have not been given a Tar­get Let­ter does not mean that you will avoid being indicted. After all, remem­ber the say­ing “a grand jury can indict a ham sand­wich.” You may be con­sid­ered a sub­ject in a crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tion, and sub­jects can also be indicted. As dis­cussed above, retain coun­sel imme­di­ately and invoke your right to remain silent.

Select­ing Counsel–Hire a Grand Jury “Spe­cial­ist“
Not every attor­ney is expe­ri­enced with han­dling grand jury mat­ters. You should seek out an attor­ney with this expe­ri­ence. Often the expe­ri­enced trial lawyer that your friends or fam­ily rec­om­mend will not have a clue about han­dling some­one under inves­ti­ga­tion by a grand jury. I have seen cases where coun­sel with years of expe­ri­ence advised their clients to tes­tify pur­suant to a grand jury sub­poena. The clients were indicted and con­victed based upon their own state­ments. Coun­sel han­dling grand jury mat­ters should be pre­pared to spend a great deal of time inter­view­ing the client and con­duct­ing a fac­tual inves­ti­ga­tion. While coun­sel will not be able to stand at your side if you are called to tes­tify at a grand jury, com­pe­tent coun­sel will wait out­side the grand jury room, and give clear advice con­cern­ing the Fifth Amend­ment privilege.

Dis­claimer: The legal infor­ma­tion pre­sented at this site should not be con­strued to be for­mal legal advice. Any results set forth here were depen­dent on the facts of that case and the results will dif­fer from case to case. Please con­tact Tim War­riner, Esq. for legal advice spe­cific to your sit­u­a­tion. This web site is not intended to solicit clients for rep­re­sen­ta­tion in crim­i­nal pro­ceed­ings out­side of the State of Cal­i­for­nia, except for those mat­ters pros­e­cuted in U.S. Fed­eral Courts. Tim War­riner, Esq. is a licensed Cal­i­for­nia attor­ney. The infor­ma­tion con­tained in this web site is gen­eral in nature. It is pro­vided for infor­ma­tional, illus­tra­tive and adver­tise­ment pur­poses only. It is not legal advice. It should not be relied upon in mak­ing legal deci­sions or in place of a con­sul­ta­tion with an expe­ri­enced and knowl­edge­able attor­ney regard­ing a spe­cific mat­ter. Read­ing this site, send­ing us infor­ma­tion, or receipt of infor­ma­tion from us does not estab­lish an attor­ney — client rela­tion­ship. Our review of, and/or response to, your query does not mean that we are rep­re­sent­ing you or that we are your lawyers. State­ments, tes­ti­mo­ni­als and endorse­ments con­tained herein do not con­sti­tute a guar­an­tee, war­ranty, or pre­dic­tion regard­ing the ulti­mate result or out­come of your legal mat­ter. Links from this web site to the web site of another entity does not state or imply the exis­tence of a rela­tion­ship between Tim War­riner, Esq. and that entity. A writ­ten, signed retainer agree­ment is a pre­req­ui­site for Tim War­riner, Esq. to rep­re­sent you.