Victim / Witness Representation in New Hampshire Courts

The New Hampshire attorneys of Lothstein Guerriero, PLLC, on a fairly regular basis, are retained or appointed to represent an alleged victim, or a trial witness, in a criminal case. Why would an alleged victim or a trial witness want, or need, a lawyer?

• Criminal complainants (alleged victims), or trial witnesses, might be concerned that they could incriminate themselves during their testimony. Nobody wants to start out being a crime victim ... and end up, after a lengthy court process, becoming a criminal defendant!
• Criminal complainants, or trial witnesses, may come to realize that the story they told to the police is not entirely true, is exaggerated or distorted or embellished in some way, or is incomplete in that it fails to provide needed context or tell the entire story. Such individuals should be very concerned that — if and when they provide truthful testimony — if the testimony differs in any way from what the person told to the police during the initial investigation, the person might be prosecuted for offenses such as perjury, obstruction of justice, false report to law enforcement, etc.
• Criminal complainants and alleged victims may feel that the prosecution is not listening to them, is not following their wishes, or does not have their best interests at heart. Indeed, a prosecutor does not represent the alleged victim or complainant in Court — the prosecutor represents the State of New Hampshire. In these situations, it can be helpful to have a lawyer to advocate for one's position and get the attention of the prosecutor.

If you or a loved one is a criminal complainant, alleged victim or trial witness who is seeking legal representation, please call us to schedule a consultation. Depending on the circumstances, it may be a free consultation, or we may conduct a paid consultation, often at a reduced hourly rate.

If you are in this position, please do not fill out any information about your case on the forms on our website, and please do not provide any information to the "Chat" service on our website, in order to avoid potential conflicts of interest (which could arise if, for example, unknown to you, one of our lawyers was handling a related case). Instead, please initiate the intake process by calling one of our offices:

• Concord Office: 603-513-1919
• Keene Office: 603-352-5000