If you have been acquitted or exonerated of a crime you didn’t commit and feel the prosecution wrongly and intentionally accused and prosecuted you anyway, you may be able to file a malicious prosecution case.

Orlando and Central Florida criminal defense attorney Roddy Lanigan explains malicious prosecution, and while this may be challenging, is worth pursuing. You have to be able to prove not only that you were innocent, but that the prosecution did not have probable cause, nor did it reasonably believe that you committed a crime. However, they proceeded to charge you with the crime anyway.

Malicious prosecution is more common than many are aware of.

Individuals will first go through a trial and must be exonerated or acquitted of the crime that they were accused of. Then after the first case, a second case, the malicious prosecution case is filed.

Malicious prosecution claims often include wrongful arrest and wrongful imprisonment, which are separate claims. Malicious prosecution applies only to the criminal proceedings brought against you without probable cause, rather than the entire process, the arrest and the ensuing incarceration that has been suffered.

You may sue for malicious prosecution when you’ve been exonerated or acquitted of a crime but just proving innocence doesn’t prove malicious prosecution.

Understanding Malicious Prosecution
The topic of malicious prosecution can be very emotional for those who have been wrongly accused of a crime. There’s a long, intense, legal battle to defend and win a case for a crime you didn’t commit.

Then comes the second part and a second trial altogether after exoneration or acquittal. Again, innocence or acquittal alone doesn’t constitute or prove malicious prosecution occurred. The key is demonstrating intentional wrongdoing hopefully with the ability to show probable cause. It must have been reasonable to believe that you committed the crime by a reasonable person.

Engage attorney Roddy Lanigan to fight for you to regain your pride and  reputation. A wrongful lawsuit will damage your community and public image, your family’s lives. You’re embarrassed and humiliated, you lost time and money in attorney’s fees. This type of case may have caused mental anguish and prevented and prohibited your ability to find and keep employment.

What happens more often is that there is a strong malicious prosecution case involving blatant wrongdoing by a police officer, or an officer of the court such as a prosecutor who knowingly:

• Coerces a witness to give false testimony against you

• Brings charges based on falsified evidence

• Presents falsified evidence against you

• Conceals evidence to exonerate you

• Brings false charges against you or brings charges against you for a crime committed by someone else

Find out more about malicious prosecution by consulting with Orlando and Central Florida criminal defense attorney Roddy Lanigan.