Legal Question in Criminal Law in Wisconsin

In WI, an invitation to either come to court or to come to the police station is known as an "order in" date. While it has no legal authority or effect, if you fail to comply, their next request is likely to be delivered to you in a form which has plenty of legal authority and effect; that being an arrest warrant signed by a judge. It is therefore often helpful for you to cooperate by at least appearing voluntarily as requested. At such an interview, however, my advice would nearly always be to seek legal advice before saying anything to the officers (other than telling them that you wish to exercise your constitutional right to remain silent). While your lawyer might suggest that it is OK to cooperate in many situations, in others he may advise you that it is against your best interest to speak at all, since what you may say will likely hurt your defense. You should therefore retain an experienced criminal lawyer as soon as possible. In most places, the best criminal lawyers will have started their careers as prosecutors, so this is a reasonable criteria to use if you want to hire a true veteran of any state's criminal justice system. If you cannot afford a private lawyer, a public defender could possibly be hired for you at state expense. While they are often the lawyers who had the greatest recent experience in any court system, Public Defenders are often limited by the huge size of their case load in terms of how much time they can reasonably spend on any one client's case. My comments in this public web forum are intended only for public educational purposes and not as legal advice for you. You therefore should retain your own attorney as soon as possible, since time limits can apply to many different types of legal matters which could severely harm your case if they expire without receiving proper attention in a timely fashion. However, you are also welcome to contact me at my office in Racine if you wish to discuss this matter further.