Criminal Insights

Analysis and practical guides on criminal.

40 articles, checklists, and guides on criminal law, written by the attorneys at MC Law. Every piece is general information, not legal advice — for a specific matter, contact the firm.

CriminalCriminal Procedure

Criminal Defense Toolkit: Bail, Discovery, Plea Bargaining, and Sentencing

This toolkit assembles the working documents of a criminal defense practice in the order they are needed. It includes the client instruction letter that prevents the most common self-inflicted damage, the evidence preservation letter aimed at body camera and third party video before it overwrites, a release plan template and bail argument outline, an enumerated discovery and Brady demand, suppression and Franks motion outlines, a plea evaluation memorandum that forces the collateral consequences analysis before any offer is conveyed, a sentencing memorandum framework built on the statutory factors, mitigation package guidance including how to instruct letter writers, and the post-disposition items that determine whether a record can ever be cleared.

Casey Scott McKayJuly 9, 202613 min read

CriminalVictims' Rights

Crime Victim Toolkit: Notice Requests, Impact Statements, Restitution, and Claims

This toolkit supplies the letters, worksheets, and templates a crime victim actually needs, with commentary on when each is used and what it accomplishes. It includes a notification registration letter, a conferral and plea-consultation request, a restitution loss worksheet with the categories courts recognize, a victim impact statement scaffold and a worked example, a compensation application cover letter and an appeal letter for a denial, a preservation letter to a third party whose surveillance footage matters to a civil claim, an employer notice letter, and a parole input letter. Each template is written to be adapted rather than copied blindly.

Casey Scott McKayMay 3, 202616 min read

CriminalWhite Collar

Conducting an Internal Investigation: Scope, Privilege, and Reporting

An internal investigation is a legal proceeding the company runs against itself, and it fails in predictable ways: scoped too narrowly to find the real problem, conducted by people who report to the executives under scrutiny, documented in a way that destroys privilege, and concluded without remediation that anyone can verify. The threshold decisions are who the client is, who conducts the work, and what the deliverable will be, and each has consequences that are difficult to reverse later. This guide runs the process from the triggering complaint through scoping, document collection, interviews, findings, and remediation, with attention to the privilege mechanics that determine whether the work product can be protected and to the disclosure decision that frequently follows. It also covers the cross-border complications that arise the moment employee data must move across a border.

Casey Scott McKayApril 26, 202625 min read

CriminalVictims' Rights

Victims' Rights and Compensation Checklist: A Practical Checklist

This checklist runs a crime victim's matter from the first week through the years after the case ends. It covers obtaining the report and finding an advocate, the notification registrations that must be made in writing with every office, exercising the rights to confer and to be heard, building the loss file category by category before sentencing, writing and delivering an impact statement, applying for compensation and appealing a denial, coordinating insurance and a civil claim with their independent deadlines, privacy and safety measures including address confidentiality, and the post-case tasks of parole input, custody notification, and judgment renewal.

Casey Scott McKayApril 23, 20268 min read

CriminalVictims' Rights

Asserting Victims' Rights and Getting Compensated: A Practical Guide

This guide is the sequence for a person harmed by a crime. It covers what to do in the first week including obtaining the report and finding an advocate, how to register for notification everywhere so the case does not proceed without you, how to exercise the right to confer before a plea, how to document losses so restitution is actually ordered, how to write and deliver an impact statement, how to apply for compensation and appeal a denial, how the civil claim and insurance fit alongside the criminal case, and what to do after the case ends including parole input and custody notification.

Casey Scott McKayApril 16, 202628 min read

CriminalVictims' Rights

Crime Victims' Rights: Notice, Participation, Restitution, and Compensation

Victims of crime hold a set of rights that exist on paper in every jurisdiction and are honored unevenly in practice, largely because nobody tells victims what they are or how to assert them. This article explains the federal Crime Victims' Rights Act and the state constitutional amendments that parallel it, the eight rights they confer and how they are enforced, the victim impact statement and the constitutional decision permitting it, mandatory restitution and the collection problem that follows a restitution order, state compensation funds and the eligibility rules that exclude people who need them, the specific protections for sexual assault survivors, address confidentiality and employment protections, and the separate civil remedies that exist alongside the criminal case.

Casey Scott McKayApril 9, 202629 min read

CriminalPost-Conviction

Post-Conviction Toolkit: Sentencing Memoranda, Appeals, and Habeas Petitions

This toolkit assembles the working documents of sentencing and post-conviction practice: a presentence report objection letter, a sentencing memorandum skeleton, a character letter request and allocution outline, notice of appeal and transcript order language, an issue screening worksheet and appellate brief outline, a trial file demand and police file records request with a preservation demand, a witness affidavit template, structures for ineffective assistance and Brady claims, a state post-conviction petition outline with an evidentiary hearing request, a habeas deadline worksheet and exhaustion chart, a compassionate release motion outline, and a counsel request letter.

Casey Scott McKayApril 2, 202614 min read

CriminalPost-Conviction

Sentencing and Post-Conviction Checklist: A Practical Checklist

This checklist runs a criminal case from sentencing preparation through federal habeas. It covers presentence report objections and the mitigation record, allocution preparation, the notice of appeal and the transcript order that must include everything, issue selection against preservation and the standard of review, the transition to collateral review and what claims survive, the ineffective assistance investigation including obtaining the trial and police files, the federal habeas deadline calculation done in writing, exhaustion and default, and the parallel avenues of compassionate release, retroactivity, parole, and record correction.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 26, 20267 min read

CriminalPost-Conviction

Appealing a Conviction and Seeking Post-Conviction Relief: A Practical Guide

This guide is the sequence for a person convicted and the family trying to help. It covers the notice of appeal that must be filed within days, how to order the transcript and assemble the record, how appellate issues are actually selected and why fewer is better, what an appeal can and cannot do, how to move from the direct appeal to state post-conviction without losing claims, how to investigate an ineffective assistance claim including obtaining the trial file and the police file, how to calculate the federal habeas deadline without losing the case to arithmetic, and how to find and work with post-conviction counsel.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 19, 202629 min read

CriminalPost-Conviction

Sentencing, Appeals, and Post-Conviction Relief: From Verdict to Habeas

A conviction is not the end of a criminal case, and the routes that follow have different names, different deadlines, different standards, and different courts. This article explains how sentencing actually works after the guidelines became advisory, the constitutional rule that facts increasing a maximum must be found by a jury, what the presentence report does and why objections to it matter more than argument, the direct appeal and the preservation rules that determine what can be raised, the difference between an appeal and a collateral attack, ineffective assistance and Brady claims, state post-conviction procedure, federal habeas with its one-year clock and its procedural default doctrine, and compassionate release.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 12, 202629 min read

CriminalPretrial Release

Pretrial Release Toolkit: Bail Motions, Conditions, and Detention Hearings

This toolkit collects the working documents of a pretrial release matter: a release package cover sheet and the verification letters that support it, a third-party custodian affidavit, a treatment acceptance request, a criminal history correction sheet and risk assessment challenge, motions for release on conditions and for bail reduction with a financial affidavit, a menu of condition packages matched to specific government concerns, a detention hearing outline, a prompt probable cause demand, a bond form comparison and bail bond contract review sheet, condition modification and fee waiver requests, a motion to quash a warrant after a missed date, and motions to reopen and to review a detention order.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 1, 202614 min read

CriminalPretrial Release

Pretrial Release and Detention Hearing Checklist: A Practical Checklist

This checklist runs a pretrial release matter from arrest through detention review. It covers the first hour, the release package that decides hearings, preparation for the pretrial services interview, correcting the risk score and criminal history, the detention hearing argument and the condition packages that answer specific government concerns, comparing bond forms before paying a non-refundable premium, reviewing a bail bond contract, handling unworkable conditions and fees, responding to a missed court date, and reopening or seeking review when detention is ordered.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 22, 20267 min read