I think people think of it, people who wouldn’t know more about it think it must be sort of the same. I mean it is the same in the sense that it’s a court, there’s a judge, there’s a prosecutor, there’s a defense attorney, there’s people on the witness stand, and there’s a jury or a judge deciding a case. And there’s a trial and then maybe a sentencing. So in that respect, it’s the same. Other than that, it’s very, very different. The laws are, obviously, totally different laws. It’s the United States code. The procedure is a bit different. But most importantly, it’s the way the cases are handled and treated. Federal court has, in general, harsher mandatory minimum penalties. Just the way the trial is conducted, the conviction rate is extremely high.

Quite often, before a federal drug case, let’s say or a federal fraud case is brought by the FBI and by the US Attorney’s Office they’ve done a lot of legwork on the case. So it’s more often for there to be something like wiretaps or surveillance or complex digital evidence that was developed before the person was even arrested. The point of that meaning the defendants are in a very uphill battle, facing stiff penalties, and the case, a lot of times becomes about negotiating and how to craft the case to get the best possible sentence, unfortunately. It’s more likely that that’s the case in federal court.

In a state court, they’re also extremely serious cases but a lot of the cases stemmed from an arrest that happened on the street in a moment in a particular day. And the investigation happens after that. And so, those cases are through no fault of the police those are often there’s less investigation to be had as a case where there’s a sting operation or an investigation going on for months or years before arrest. It’s a very different kind of practice and I think most people who do this would agree that if you only go to state court you shouldn’t just walk into federal court straightway without talking to people and learning more about it.