In this article, a New Jersey criminal defense lawyer discusses your right to have your attorney present if you are required to submit to being placed in a lineup.

Pre-Trial Proceedings
It is your right, if you are placed in a lineup or are required to be present at any other kind of pre-trial identification procedure other than a photo display, to have your New Jersey criminal defense lawyer present. This includes when you are charged, indicted, arraigned or brought before a preliminary hearing.

Role of Your New Jersey Criminal Defense Lawyer
At a lineup, your New Jersey criminal defense attorney is there to function as an observer, adviser and critic. As your attorney, he or she cannot serve as a witness at your trial, so another individual such as a legal colleague, investigator or assistant should be brought in to function in that capacity. Your lawyer may also have the proceedings permanently recorded via video or audio recording and prior conversations with witnesses may be taken down by a stenographer.

Presence During Conversations
Any conversations between the police and the witnesses should be conducted in the presence of your New Jersey criminal defense lawyer to preclude the possibility of any undue attempts to influence the witness in any fashion.

Interviewing the Participants
Your New Jersey criminal defense attorney will speak with each person involved in the procedure and obtain contact information for everyone who will be participating. This is to ensure that the lineup is fair and that testimony is unbiased and untainted.

The Lineup
Your New Jersey criminal defense lawyer will be watching to be certain that the other people in the line-up have a reasonable resemblance to you so that you are not marked out by obvious differences. These might be height and weight, color of skin, beards or mustaches or lack thereof. If your height makes you stand out, your attorney might request that everyone in the lineup sit down.

Objections
When your New Jersey criminal defense attorney is asked by the presiding police officers if the lineup is unbiased and the other people are appropriate, the correct answer is no. There is nearly always some fault to find, and any variance between you and the others involved should be pointed out. Your attorney should not wait to be asked to make any objections known.

Know Your Rights
Your Trenton criminal defense lawyer is your strongest ally. Be sure you have the representation you require by calling Tim Anderson at 732-212-2812. Don’t wait. Call today.