Tulsa Attorney Blog
What is an Application to Accelerate in Oklahoma?
When you're on a deferred sentence and the prosecutor is alleging that you violated your probation, they file an application to accelerate alleging that. And then once they file an application to accelerate, they have an affidavit that goes with it and that goes to the judge to sign an arrest warrant just like a brand new case. You get an arrest warrant out and then you're arrested on that. You come before the court, you're entitled to a hearing fairly quick on those, but you can waive that if you want additional time to prepare. And you want to find out what exactly they're alleging, that'll be in the application and then negotiate something out. Read more »What is a Split Sentence in an Oklahoma Criminal Case?
A split sentence is a combination between a suspended sentence and a DOC sentence or a jail time sentence. So you might have a 7/3 split, and that would be where you're going to serve seven years in and then you get three years probation. Or, a 5/5 split or whatever the case may be. Sometimes if you're doing just a little bit of jail time, what they may say in the sentencing is you've got a "five years all suspended but the first 30 days", and then you do 30 days in and the rest is suspended. Read more »What is a Suspended Sentence in Oklahoma?
So it's similar in some respects to the deferred because you're on probation for a period of time and you stay out of jail. But the main difference is with the suspended sentence, you get a conviction. So you work out a plea deal with the state, or maybe you do a blind plea and it gets sentenced by the judge. Either case, if you get a suspended sentence, from that moment that you're sentenced, you are guilty of that offense and you have it on your record. So, if it's a misdemeanor, you've got a misdemeanor conviction. If it's a felony, now you're a convicted felon if you weren't before.
Read more »What is a Continued Sentence in Oklahoma?
A deferred sentence is where you're on probation for a period of time and then it's dismissed and expunged. A continued sentence is a little bit different. So in a continued sentence, you've reached an agreement with the prosecutor and pursuant to that deal, you enter a plea and then you're put on probation for a period of time. Read more »Why Did the Police Officer Lower the Speed on my Traffic Ticket?
You get pulled over and then the officer tells you, you were going one speed, but he writes the ticket for a lesser speed. It makes you think, what's he hiding? Did he lie about me going faster? And that's why he's writing it for a less amount. Did he maybe do the radar at one speed and then he did it again, it was a lower speed and now he can't use the old one. What's going on here? Read more »What is a Deferred Prosecution Agreement in Oklahoma?
So there's usually two ways about a deferred prosecution agreement that it gets worked out. Sometimes it happens before a criminal case is filed. So there's an investigation going on and there's negotiations going on with the prosecutor. This happens a lot of times with bogus checks. So if a bogus check gets turned into the DA's office, a lot of times they'll contact the person and they workout a payment plan on it. Read more »Never DON'T Sign Your Traffic Ticket!
All right, so you get pulled over for some sort of traffic offense and you're kind of upset about it and the officer's going over with you and you dispute what happened. They say you're going this fast, you know you weren't and you want to contest it and you can't wait to get into court. So you're in that frame of mind and the officer asks you, "Why don't you sign here on the ticket?" Sometimes people's gut reaction is, "Well, I don't agree with that. I don't want to sign the ticket. I want to contest this. I want to go to court." And I've had people call me after the fact, so angry with the way the officer responded when they refuse to sign, where they're threatening to take them to jail and all that and they're very angry with the way the officer handled it and I have to kind of explain to it. Read more »What is a Deferred Sentence in Oklahoma Courts?
So first thing about deferred sentence is you don't want to confuse them with a deferred prosecution. In a deferred prosecution, that's just a deal between you and the prosecutor, the defendant and the prosecutor. The courts not really involved in that. With a deferred sentence, that's more formal and it's done with the court and court's approval. What is a deferred sentence? That is essentially..... Read more »When You Don't Need a Lawyer for Your Speeding Ticket in Oklahoma
So, first off, if you get a speeding ticket, first thing we want to find out is, are you a CDL holder? Do you have a commercial driver's license? If you do, you're going to want to have an attorney, because even for minor infractions, even ones that wouldn't cause a regular driver to have problems, even ones that wouldn't cause it to be reported to their insurance, it does get reported if it's a CDL, and it can cause big problems, not just for you and your license, but for your employer and your employer's insurance. Read more »What is a Deferred Sentence Expungement in Oklahoma?
A deferred sentence is where you get a deal worked out with the prosecutor to where if you plead guilty, you're put on probation for a period of time, you have to jump through some hoops and when you come back to court, the case will be dismissed and expunged. Read more »What is The Maximum Marriage Length for Annulment in Oklahoma?
Regardless of how long you've been married, there's no red line on it. There's no definitive determination based on that. So when can you get an annulment? It's not about how long you've been married, it's about the circumstances leading into the marriage. Did one of the parties lack capacity to get married? Was there a fraudulent inducement into the marriage? You have to have facts like that in order to be eligible for an annulment. Read more »Consummation of a Marriage & Annulment: Does It Matter?
A lot of people think as long as the marriage hasn't been consummated, that you're eligible to get an annulment. That as long as you don't do that, no matter how long you've been there in the marriage, you can go ahead and file for that annulment, that that's the main factor that judges look at or that the law requires, and unfortunately I'm here to tell you it's not. It doesn't matter. It's somewhat irrelevant. Read more »Don't Just Pay that Oklahoma Traffic Ticket! It Could Cost Your License!
So first off, pretty much every traffic citation you have, that you could receive in Oklahoma, has a point value assigned to it. And if those points add up to 10 points within five years, you lose your license and I can give you some examples of each of the levels of those. Read more »Did You Accidentally Get Married at H&R Block, Without Knowing It?
Common law marriage exists and is live and well in Oklahoma. So how do you enter into one? Sometimes it's very simple. Basically what the law says is that you have to have an agreement to be married and you have to cohabitate. There's no specific amount of time you have to be cohabitating, and the agreement doesn't have to be written down or anything. Read more »3 Most Common Destination Weddings Seen by Oklahoma Divorce Attorneys
If you're a divorce attorney, you need to file a divorce petition, which we do frequently, one of the things we have to list on there is the county of the marriage. So we get to see who's having destination weddings. And it's interesting to see what type of destination weddings come into our office and what we file. So what do you think the most common destination is? I'm about to tell you Read more »Divorce vs. Legal Separation in Oklahoma: What are the Differences?
One of the big differences, there's two primary big differences, but the first one has to do with jurisdiction. In order to file for divorce in Oklahoma, you have to be a resident for six months of the state, and a resident of the county for 30 days to file in that county court. That's for the divorce requirements. Read more »3 Magic Words to Make a Marijuana Charge Disappear in Oklahoma
Three magic words to make a misdemeanor marijuana charge disappear in Oklahoma. That's right. I'm Oklahoma attorney James Wirth and I'm about to tell you the way that two laws that went into effect around the same time, can work together to make a medical marijuana charge disappear by stating three magic words. Read more »Did HR Marry You and Your Significant Other?
Did your company's HR rep accidentally marry you and your significant other without you knowing about it? Believe it or not, it happens. I'm Oklahoma attorney James Wirth, and I'm about to tell you about how common law marriages can be established without you knowing it. Read more »Does Oklahoma Recognize Common Law Marriage?
Once you are common law married, like I said, if you want to undo that, you can't just do a common law divorce, that doesn't exist. You have to go through a regular dissolution of marriage process. That can sometimes be complicated when people don't do that. Because a lot of times, the more complicated cases we see, they've entered into a common law marriage sometimes without knowing it, sometimes with knowing it. They didn't dissolve it, they got into other relationships, they have other kids. Read more »Covid-19 Impacts Emergency Custody in Oklahoma
The Oklahoma Supreme Court has put out rules that have limited greatly what can be done in courts right now during this lockdown isolation period. Also, each county court most county courts have also put out their own rules restricting things. But there are certain things that we can't shut down, no matter how bad it may get. And those things include.. Read more »Does Covid-19 Jeopardize Divorce Filing in Oklahoma?
As of April 2nd 2020, Oklahoma Courts are closed for most things. If you go down there, there's going to be security that's going to see whether you can even get into the courthouse, but certain things are open... The things open will surprise you. Read more »The Facts Behind Emergency Custody for Potential Coronavirus Exposure in Oklahoma
So there's been this one order going around on social media where actually a tribal judge here in Oklahoma purportedly granted a change in custody on an emergency basis without hearing from the other side primarily because the parent was working in the healthcare industry and could have been exposed to the Coronavirus. There was no specific information that, that person was exposed. The allegations were based just on the line of work. And the post goes on and talks about that at 10 o'clock, "Law enforcement showed up at my house and forcibly removed my child and gave it to dad just because I work in the healthcare industry." Read more »Can Visitation Be Denied Due to the Coronavirus?
There have been parents who get visitation normally, but are being denied visitation from the other side saying that it's a danger to transport the child, or have the child in more than one house, or some other circumstances. What can you do under those circumstances? What are you entitled to do? Read more »Can You Stop Paying Child Support After COVID-19 Layoff?
Tulsa attorney James Wirth discusses child support and the Covid-19 pandemic and how they affect each other. Okay, so first off, if there is a court order for child support. It's based on making a certain amount of money and then losing your job due to a layoff or due to other circumstances from the Coronavirus.
Read more »Is the Coronavirus Grounds to get out of Jail in Oklahoma?
Oklahoma Department of Corrections has decided that they're no longer going to receive new inmates from county. Generally, somebody gets charged in a county court, once they're convicted, they pull chains, and they get sent off to Oklahoma Department of Corrections. And then, they get placed into a penitentiary system there. That's no longer happening. Read more »
