the federal sentencing guidelines are at

the Forefront of any criminal case from

your initial evaluation of the case

to assessing your odds at trial and

making a risk benefit with your client

and then of course if your client is

found guilty at the sentencing phase but

what they really are are series of

guidelines or rules that the courts

apply in federal cases which primarily

takes into two factors the offense level

that’s assigned to the crime meaning a

higher number would correspond with what

people believe to be the sentencing

commission believes to be a a more

serious offense and the second

significant factor would be the

defendant’s criminal history on how many

other occasions have they been convicted

of crimes but the federal sentencing

guidings have also changed in a real

significant way over the last 10 years

and now there’s something called the

3553 factors that the courts recognize

where we as attorneys can really bring

to the attention almost anything that

would be considered mitigating evidence

that should be considered in the court

sort of taking a holistic view of the

defendant but the reason why why people

place so much emphasis on the federal

sentencing guidelines are the often very

Draconian penalties associated with

federal crimes you might have a client

who’s facing a mandatory minimum

sentence of 10 years or 15 years or 20

years those are stiff sentences and

sometimes it might be up to life so you

have to be extremely confident in your

attorney that they have the ability to

take your case to trial because

sometimes you really don’t have any

choice a client’s often not going to

take sitting down without a trial 10 or

15 or 20 years or up to a life sentence

without going to trial so the selection

of a trial attorney who can take your

case to try out the federal level and

win is of Paramount importance