All right, here we are. Lawyer talk podcast, off the record, on the air, taking questions. They're coming at us like we can't even keep up. But what do we got here today?

This is one from a reel on YouTube. This is from a Shaladdin Pitirsa. Sorry, my bad. I butchered that. The question is, can a person file charges seven years after something happened to them?

All right, you want the law school answer? Yes. No. Maybe. It's also the risky business answer for those who know the movie. Depends. Yes, no, Maybe. All right, so let's. Let's. Let's sort of get to the bottom of this. So can a person file charges? Well, a person doesn't file charges, so. You know, I remember growing up, my dad, he was a law professor. But I would. You'd always hear, I'm pressing charges. Yeah. And. All right, people don't, like. There's no meaning to that word because anybody who's been charged with a crime or anybody who's sort of researched it, it's always like the State of Ohio versus Troy Henriksen or the Commonwealth of Virginia versus Whoever it is, not Steve Palmer versus Troy, because you assaulted me. Now, I could sue you.

Yes.

And that's a civil. That's a civil tort. Or I'm suing you for money because you did damage to me. That's different. But a criminal charge is brought by the government. Either the federal government, the state government, the local city or township, wherever it is, it's brought by the government. So let's rephrase the question. Is seven years too long to wait for the government to bring charges against somebody?

Depends on the charge.

It all depends. Yeah, certain charges. So we're dealing with what we call. We're dealing with what we call, and everybody's heard this term, the statute of limitations. Statute of limitations is. Is a legislative law. Written law says you have to charge somebody within X period of time of the discovery of the crime. And I say discovery of the crime because most statutes of limitations begin to run not when the crime was committed, but when the crime was discovered or reasonably should have been discovered. So, look, if you go commit a fraud and you conceal it for 10 years without getting caught, you're not going to get the benefit of a statute of limitations, and nor should you. I mean, even as a criminal defense lawyer, I might argue that you should. Because the first thing I'm going to argue is what?

Statute limitations.

They should have recently discovered it. Yeah, it was obvious. Not my fault you guys are stupid.

Yeah.

You know, but Anyway, it makes sense most of the time, at least in Ohio, felonies are typically about six years. There are some that have no statutes of limitations. Like murder.

Yeah.

Rape, some rape charges, you know, so this comes up all the time. And delayed disclosure, child sex abuse. So statutes limitations are sort of out the window in those situations. So the answer is yes, no, maybe if, say, the government wants to pursue a charge based on whatever happened here after seven years and the statute of limitations doesn't bar it, doesn't prevent it, then it can. Yeah, but there are other problems that come with it. Yeah.

I mean, now we have this delayed case. On the defense side, I feel like it's awesome. Like, why. Why did you guys wait seven years to charge this?

That's right.

All these witnesses now that are going to come testify, like, oh, you remember what happened seven years ago. This clearly for the story. Like, I know on the defense side you have a lot of fuel.

Like, you have a lot of fuel factually. And you also have some constitutional fuel because there's also something called speedy trial and delay, what we'll call pre indictment or pre charge delay. So we're immediately. If it's been too long and there's no good reason for it, we're going to be arguing on the defense side, you have caused us significant prejudice. Witnesses are gone. Evidence has disappeared. We are no longer able to mount a defense to a charge that you should have brought irrespective of this statute of limitations a long time ago, but you just didn't.

So after seven years, the defense's star witness that gives him the alibi dies. All right, now. Now we're going to charge. I'm like, very convenient of you, State.

Yeah, you. So that's the kind of thing that the Constitution would protect. So you've got different things at play. One would be. And there I even we get confused with. I always have to sort it out. You have a statute of limitations. You can't charge somebody after that is expired. There's some exceptions that we've talked about, but generally you can't do it. Then you've got. The defense side is going to say, wait a minute, you waited too long. This is like we're prejudiced because of the weight. You discovered this way back when, yet you're not doing anything about it. And then you've got this other sort of more nebulous, not nebulous, I guess, more generalized problem that the proof and the evidence could be compromised and it might be harder to bring a claim later on. So great question we deal with this. This is the stuff we deal with day in and day out upstairs in the law practice. But keep them coming, folks. We'll be happy to answer your questions here as we have time. Lawyer Talk podcast, off the record, on the air.