Shoplifting Charges in Linden, New Jersey
Linden City in Union County, New Jersey processes some of the most shoplifting arrests in the whole county behind Union Township and Elizabeth which is surprising when you think about how the city does not have any large malls. However, Linden is home to several large department stores which are located along Route 9 which runs through the center of Linden. This stretch of the highway is loaded with shopping and various stores including Walmart, ALDI, Home Depot, ShopRite, Target, Kohl’s, Sam’s Club, and BJ’s Wholesale Club. These large stores attract thousands of shoppers to Linden each year but also contribute to a large amount of shoplifting arrests. Most of these shoplifting cases are sent to the busy Linden Municipal Court where they will be scheduled for either a morning or afternoon appearance depending on the calendar schedule. The municipal court handles all disorderly persons offenses and you will be required to appear in court or risk having a warrant issued for your arrest. Other more serious shoplifting crimes involving over $200 in stolen merchandise will be charged as an indictable crime and sent to the Union County Superior Court in Elizabeth to be reviewed and investigated further. You can read about the different gradation of shoplifting charges or the penalties associated with each shoplifting crime on those specific topic pages on our website.
How to Defend a Linden NJ Shoplifting Arrest
Our criminal defense attorneys regularly appear in Linden Municipal Court and Union County Superior Court to defend shoplifting crimes and related charges such as receiving stolen property, credit card fraud, theft by deception and robbery. First you must assume that the prosecutor will most likely have a strong case against you because the store loss prevention officers are well trained and will normally not stop and detain you unless they believe they have indisputable proof that a crime took place. They are held to very high standard because the store’s are often worried about getting sued for accusing an innocent shopper of shoplifting. Secondly, do not assume that just because you made a bad mistake it will have to ruin the rest of your life. In fact, in the vast majority of cases our Linden shoplifting attorneys are able to work out a resolution that does not result in a criminal conviction through challenging the state’s case against our client to obtain a dismissal or downgrade, or by securing our client’s admittance into the conditional dismissal program. To learn more about challenging your Linden shoplifting charge, feel free to contact our office today at (732) 856-9959 to speak with a New Jersey shoplifting lawyer who can answer your questions and address your concerns.