By Hung Ou Yang
When a criminal offense is brought to the attention of Taiwanese prosecutors, a criminal investigation shall be initiated. It is a mandatory rule of the Taiwanese criminal procedures, so that the prosecutors will be required to make a decision, to press or not to press charges against a defendant, when a criminal investigation is completed. Under this initial rule for criminal investigation procedures, it does not mean the police will not play an important role for criminal justice. Since the police acts under the prosecutors' orders and supervision, the police will also be required to undertake criminal investigation and then transfer it to the prosecutors whenever a victim files a criminal complaint, a third party or even a witness reports a crime, or other situations imply that there is a crime. When you know that you are under criminal investigation in Taiwan, the best way to protect your rights is to hire a trust-worthy and knowledgeable lawyer to defend you.
What You Should Do As A First Step
When you are caught at the scene or arrested by the police with a warrant, you will not be informed of your rights until an interrogation is formally conducted in the police station. Having said that, Of course, you may tell the police that you would like to hire a lawyer to help you and remain silent at any time. You will also face an interrogation when you receive a written notice by the police or a subpoena by the prosecutors if you are listed as a suspect or a defendant other than a witness. In this scenario, you will have more time to seek advice from a lawyer. All in all, the very first and immediate step you have to take is to hire a criminal defense lawyer for understanding your rights and discussing your defense strategy even though you consider yourself innocent.
The Importance of Hiring a Criminal Defense Lawyer
In our experiences, and probably similar to what you may have already known, defendants who hire a criminal defense lawyer generally will have a better outcome as compared to those who do not. The reasons behind it are simple. Criminal interrogations can be very intensive and aggressive. Absent understanding what legal risks you are facing, you will not be able to know whether what you are going to say will get you more trouble. The situation may be more severe than you can imagine because the interrogation process generally would give you pressures to talk, and you would easily make errors when you are talking under pressures. Even though you believe you are 100% innocent, what you are arguing in front of the police or the prosecutors will probably trigger other legal risks. More importantly, without lawyers' advice, you will not be able to know how to assert your rights and whether you can take advantage of a leniency policy provided by laws in your case. The sooner an experienced criminal defense lawyer can be involved, the sooner your defense strategy can be built up.
What Rights Do You Have under Taiwanese Criminal Justice System?
When an interrogation is started in Taiwan, you will be informed of your rights. That is, the criminal offenses you are being accused of, the right to remain silent, the right to a lawyer, and the right to request the prosecutors to investigate any evidence in your favor. With an experienced defense lawyer being present, you would be able to have his advice on whether you have already violated laws, and whether it would be better to assert your right to remain silent. Remember, anything you say surely can and will be used against you. You will have a right to a lawyer, however, the police or the prosecutors would only give your lawyers four hours to arrive. In addition, your lawyer will give you advice on when and how to request the prosecutors to investigate the evidence in your favor.
Be Honest with Your Lawyer
Being honest with your lawyer is very important. Your lawyer will not be able to assist you with a solid defense strategy if you fail to disclose to your lawyer every critical detail of your case. When the police or the prosecutors may have a bunch of evidence against you before starting an interrogation, only you can let your lawyer know how bad the situation is. Of course, your lawyer is obliged to keep confidential and may refuse to testify for any information disclosed by you. More importantly, Taiwanese Constitutional Court has granted a lawyer client privilege since 2023 similar to what common laws have so that searching a law firm and seizing work products of lawyers in Taiwan will be subject to more restrictions. See 112 Constitutional Court Hsien-Pan (憲判) 9 (2023). That being said, the Taiwanese criminal justice system also encourages the defendants to disclose all the details to their lawyers.
Assess Whether You Would Like to Take Advantage of A Leniency Policy
Under Taiwanese laws, your sentence will be reduced to half each time when the requirements of a leniency policy are satisfied. For example, in narcotics related cases, when a defendant confesses the source of the narcotics so that the principal offender or accomplices is arrested, his sentence will be reduced to half. Moreover, when a defendant confesses all through the investigation and the trials in narcotics related cases, his sentence will also be reduced to half. Section 1 and Section 2 of Article 17 of the Taiwanese Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act. That being said, when you satisfy the requirements of these two leniency policies, your sentence will be reduced to one-fourth. When the police and the prosecutors are not obliged to inform the defendants of the leniency policies, an experienced criminal defense lawyer will give you advice on what leniency policies you can take advantage of.
What You Should Know When You Would Like to Plea Not Guilty
When you want to plea not guilty, you shall understand that you shall go the distance and definitely it will be a long way to go. Before you make this decision, you shall check whether you have evidence at your hands in your favor and you shall let you lawyer assess whether your evidence is strong or not. The Taiwanese criminal justice system stresses that you will not be found guilty unless you are proved guilty beyond reasonable doubt. However, the prosecutors are obliged to press charges against you when they have sufficient evidence proving that you are the suspect of a crime. In other words, the threshold for the prosecutors to press charges against you is much lower than a guilty judgment rendered by the courts. Therefore, if you do not have strong evidence in your favor, or if you have no good excuses based on your defense strategy, the chances are that you will be pressed charges and go through the trials even though you believe you did nothing illegal. In Taiwan, the whole process may take years before a final court judgment comes out. The key point here for you to take away is that you shall let your lawyer give you the best advice he can give during investigation, and then let your lawyer do his job with your trust when your final decision is to plea not guilty. We all know it is a long way to go, but you will win only when you fight for it.
AUTHOR: Hung Ou Yang
Managing Partner
Taipei
+886-2-2707-9976
[email protected]
Copyright: Brain Trust International Law Firm
Disclaimer: While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this publication, it is not intended to provide legal advice as individual situations will differ and should be discussed with an expert and/or lawyer. For specific technical or legal advice on the information provided and related topics, please contact the author.
撥打電話