Michigan Criminal Defense Attorneys: Legal Information From Czarnecki & Taylor PLLC
Welcome to Michigan Criminal Defense Attorneys, a legal information and criminal-law blog published by Czarnecki & Taylor PLLC. This site is designed to help individuals and families better understand Michigan criminal law, the criminal court process, criminal appeals, and post-conviction remedies.
Our articles address important questions that frequently arise when someone has been charged with a crime, convicted, sentenced, or is considering an appeal. Topics include Michigan criminal appeals, applications for leave to appeal, Michigan Supreme Court appeals, MCR 6.500 motions for relief from judgment, sentencing appeals, ineffective assistance of counsel, prosecutorial misconduct, OWI offenses, domestic violence charges, and all Michigan criminal law issues.
Our goal is to provide clear, practical information about complicated legal issues while helping readers understand that every criminal case is different. The information on this blog is educational and is not a substitute for legal advice from an attorney who has reviewed the particular facts and record of your case.
Need Help With a Michigan Criminal Case or Appeal?
If you are facing criminal charges, challenging a conviction or sentence, or trying to determine whether additional appellate or post-conviction remedies may be available, you do not have to rely on general internet information alone.
Czarnecki & Taylor PLLC provides criminal defense and appellate representation throughout Michigan.
You can visit the Czarnecki & Taylor PLLC website to learn more about our attorneys, practice areas, experience, and criminal-defense and appellate services.
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Criminal cases and appeals can involve strict deadlines and consequences that may affect a person’s freedom, family, career, and future. If you believe you may need legal representation, contacting an attorney promptly can help you understand your options before an important deadline or opportunity is lost.
Michigan Criminal Defense Attorneys is here to help you understand the law. Czarnecki & Taylor PLLC is here when you need an attorney to help protect your rights.
The articles on this website are provided for general educational and informational purposes only and do not constitute legal advice. Reading this website or contacting the firm does not, by itself, create an attorney-client relationship.
While you can find this information on our website, here is some information about our law firm and attorneys Czarnecki & Taylor.
Experienced Michigan Criminal Defense. Proven Appellate Advocacy.
Czarnecki & Taylor PLLC is a Michigan criminal defense law firm focused on protecting people facing some of the most serious consequences of their lives. The firm’s attorneys represent clients in criminal matters ranging from misdemeanor and felony charges in Michigan’s district and circuit courts to complex criminal appeals and post-conviction proceedings. The firm’s approach combines aggressive courtroom advocacy with careful legal analysis, strategic preparation, and an understanding that every decision made in a criminal case can have consequences that extend far beyond the courtroom.
What distinguishes Czarnecki & Taylor is the breadth of its criminal practice. The attorneys understand criminal cases from both sides of the appellate record: they know how to defend a case in the trial court, and they know how to examine what happened at trial when a conviction is challenged on appeal. That combination is particularly valuable in cases involving constitutional violations, ineffective assistance of counsel, evidentiary errors, sentencing issues, prosecutorial misconduct, and other mistakes that may become the basis for appellate or post-conviction relief.
James Czarnecki. Trial-Tested. Appellate Experienced. A Criminal Defense Attorney Who Understands Both Sides of the Record.
James Czarnecki’s strength as a criminal defense attorney does not begin—or end—with appeals. He is an experienced trial lawyer who has spent his career representing people at virtually every stage of a criminal case. He has handled serious felony and misdemeanor cases, jury trials, bench trials, preliminary examinations, evidentiary hearings, suppression motions, plea negotiations, sentencing proceedings, criminal appeals, and post-conviction litigation. His trial record includes not-guilty verdicts in cases involving serious charges, including criminal sexual conduct and assault with intent to murder, as well as cases dismissed through preliminary examinations and successful motions challenging illegal searches and seizures.
That experience matters because effective criminal defense is not simply about going to trial. It is about knowing when to fight, how to fight, and which legal strategy gives the client the best opportunity for a favorable outcome. James has negotiated resolutions in which charges were reduced or dismissed and clients avoided convictions or incarceration. At the same time, when a case requires litigation, he has experience challenging evidence, examining witnesses, presenting defenses to juries, litigating constitutional issues, and taking cases through verdict. His firm’s biography states that he has litigated more than a thousand cases and obtained acquittals in both felony and misdemeanor matters.
Why Trial Experience Makes James a Stronger Appellate Attorney
What makes James particularly formidable is the combination of substantial trial experience and appellate experience. An appellate lawyer reviews a trial record looking for what went wrong—but James has also been the lawyer standing in the courtroom making objections, cross-examining witnesses, litigating motions, negotiating pleas, presenting cases to juries, and making the strategic decisions from which an appellate record is created.
That gives him an important perspective when reviewing another lawyer’s work. He understands not only what an appellate brief should argue, but what should have happened in the courtroom in the first place. When reviewing a conviction, he can examine whether counsel should have objected, whether a motion should have been filed, whether evidence should have been challenged, whether cross-examination was inadequate, whether a constitutional issue was missed, whether a plea was properly handled, or whether the record should have been developed differently. His appellate practice includes matters before the Michigan Court of Appeals, Michigan Supreme Court, and federal courts.
That combination works in the other direction as well. Appellate experience can make a lawyer more effective in the trial court. An attorney who has spent years dissecting trial records and studying why convictions are reversed develops an appreciation for preservation of error, constitutional protections, evidentiary rules, standards of review, and the importance of building a clean record. James understands that what happens during a preliminary examination, motion hearing, plea, trial, or sentencing may determine what can—and cannot—be successfully argued months or years later on appeal.
From the Courtroom to the Court of Appeals
This is one of the qualities that distinguishes James Czarnecki’s criminal-defense practice. He is not simply a trial attorney who occasionally handles appeals, nor an appellate attorney whose experience is confined to reading transcripts and writing briefs. His career has involved both.
He has stood before juries seeking acquittals. He has challenged the government’s evidence through motions. He has negotiated pleas when negotiation offered the client the better outcome. He has litigated evidentiary and constitutional issues. And after convictions, he has examined trial records, developed post-conviction claims, pursued evidentiary hearings, written appellate briefs, and challenged convictions and sentences in higher courts.
The firm’s appellate practice is strengthened by James Czarnecki’s substantial experience in Michigan criminal appeals. His work includes representation in the Michigan Court of Appeals and Michigan Supreme Court and the litigation of complex constitutional and post-conviction issues. One documented example is People v. Gonzalez-Raymundo, 308 Mich App 175 (2014), where Czarnecki represented the defendant on appeal in litigation that ultimately resulted in a new trial and a published Michigan Court of Appeals decision addressing the constitutional rights of defendants requiring language interpretation. The published opinion expressly identifies James E. Czarnecki II as counsel for the defendant.
That combination of trial experience and appellate analysis can make James Czarnecki a formidable criminal advocate. He understands how criminal cases are built, how they are defended, how mistakes become part of the record, and how those mistakes may later become appellate issues. Whether the best strategy requires negotiation, a pretrial motion, an evidentiary hearing, a jury trial, or an appeal, his experience allows him to examine the case from more than one perspective.
At Czarnecki & Taylor PLLC, that philosophy carries throughout the firm’s criminal practice: prepare the case thoroughly, understand the evidence, know the law, identify the weaknesses in the prosecution’s case, and be prepared to litigate when necessary. For someone facing criminal charges—or someone whose trial has already ended in a conviction—the goal is the same: find the strongest legal path forward and fight for it.
Genevieve Taylor: Criminal Defense Experience Combined With Judicial Experience
Genevieve L. Taylor brings extensive criminal-defense experience and the distinctive perspective of having served as a judicial officer. She has represented defendants charged with both misdemeanors and serious felonies, including offenses carrying the possibility of life imprisonment. Her work has included trials, motion practice, plea negotiations, sentencing matters, and other contested criminal proceedings. She has successfully litigated motions resulting in the suppression of evidence and dismissal of criminal cases, and she has assisted with appellate matters resulting in overturned convictions.
Genevieve’s experience extends beyond representing defendants. She has served as a district court magistrate, placing her on the other side of the bench and requiring her to evaluate cases as a neutral judicial officer. The City of St. Clair Shores confirms that she was appointed magistrate of the 40th District Court in 2021, while her professional biography identifies judicial service in both the 40th and 42-2 District Courts. That experience provides an unusual perspective for a criminal-defense lawyer: she has advocated for defendants as an attorney while also having the responsibility of evaluating legal matters impartially from the bench.
Her background also includes experience with the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office, where she gained exposure to criminal cases from the prosecution side of the system. Taken together, these experiences give Genevieve an understanding of criminal litigation from several different perspectives—defense counsel, prosecution experience, and judicial decision-making.
A Career Focused on Criminal Defense and Improving the Justice System.Genevieve’s work has also extended beyond individual cases.
She and James Czarnecki conducted a comprehensive study concerning the quality of appointed criminal defense in Macomb County using standards developed by the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission. The project examined ways to improve the quality and constitutional adequacy of representation provided to indigent defendants. She has also participated in Macomb County criminal-defense initiatives and served in leadership involving the Macomb County Circuit Court drug-court community.
That work reflects an important part of Genevieve’s approach to criminal defense: a defendant deserves meaningful representation regardless of the accusation, background, or complexity of the case. Her firm’s biography describes her reputation for persistence and willingness to pursue every legitimate avenue available for a client.
She also understands that winning does not always mean taking a case to trial. Effective criminal defense requires knowing when evidence should be challenged, when a case should be litigated aggressively, and when negotiation can produce the better result. Genevieve has negotiated with prosecutors and city attorneys to obtain reduced or dismissed charges and resolutions designed to avoid incarceration when circumstances permit.
Genevieve Taylor brings extensive criminal-defense and courtroom experience to the firm, complementing its appellate capabilities with the perspective of an attorney experienced in defending clients where criminal cases begin—in Michigan’s trial courts. Together, Czarnecki and Taylor provide representation that does not treat criminal defense and criminal appeals as unrelated disciplines. The same understanding of constitutional law, evidence, courtroom strategy, preservation of issues, and criminal procedure that matters at trial can become critically important when a case reaches the appellate courts.
The strength of Czarnecki & Taylor PLLC comes not simply from the experience of either attorney individually, but from the different perspectives James Czarnecki and Genevieve Taylor bring to a criminal case. Together, their backgrounds encompass criminal trials, plea negotiations, evidentiary motions, constitutional litigation, criminal appeals, post-conviction proceedings, and judicial experience. That combination allows the firm to examine a criminal case from multiple angles—from what happens when a person is first accused, through trial and sentencing, and, when necessary, through the appellate and post-conviction process.
For clients, that means Czarnecki & Taylor PLLC can provide experienced representation at multiple stages of the criminal justice system—from defending against the original accusation to challenging a conviction or sentence after judgment. The firm handles serious criminal charges, criminal appeals, applications for leave to appeal, sentencing appeals, ineffective-assistance claims, Ginther hearings, and post-conviction proceedings, including Michigan MCR 6.500 motions.
When your freedom, reputation, family, and future may depend upon the outcome of a criminal case, choosing the right attorneys matters. Czarnecki & Taylor approaches criminal cases with the understanding that sometimes the most important issue is obvious—and sometimes it is buried in hundreds or thousands of pages of transcripts waiting for an experienced attorney to find it. Whether you need a lawyer to defend you in the trial court or an appellate attorney to examine what went wrong after a conviction, Czarnecki & Taylor PLLC is prepared to fight for you at every stage.
Call Czarnecki & Taylor PLLC at (586) 718-2345 to discuss your Michigan criminal defense or criminal appeal.