What to expect in court for a “soliciting without a permit” misdemeanor?

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What to expect in court for a “soliciting without a permit” misdemeanor?

I work for a direct marketing firm that does door-to-door sales. Recently a co-worker and I were doing sales and were stopped by police. Because we did not have a permit (ours were still in the process of being completed, but we’ve never had legal issues before) the police issued us misdemeanors. When we got back to the office that night, my boss grabbed the ticket and said he would take care of it, and I mistakenly trusted him. Apparently that was the wrong thing to do because he never told me that I needed to take the ticket to the courthouse and schedule a court date.

Asked on August 26, 2011 Michigan

Answers:

FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney

Answered 12 years ago | Contributor

If you have not made a court appearance concenring your misdemeanor ticket for soliciting without a permit as a door to door salesperson, you need to immediately contact the court clerk and inquire as to the status of your case. If you have failed to attend the first appearance, most likely there is a bench warrant for your arrest issued due to your failure to appear.

If this is the situation, you need to advise your employer of this, hire a criminal defense attorney to represent you and get this matter rectified. Your employer is required to pay for this attorney in that he or she failed to use due diligence by not realizing a permit was required for the tasks he had you and your co-worker do.

If the first appearance has not occured yet, you still need to retain a criminal defense attorney to assist in the matter's resolution.

In most states the penalty for a misdemeanor is up to six (6) months in jail and a one-thousand dollar ($1,000.00) fine. Most likely in the end you will have no jail time, have a fine of five-hundred dollars ($500.00) and have some sort of a probationary period.

Good luck.


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