Here you will find out what to do, which deadlines are running and what you are entitled to. Every piece of advice is backed by a section of the law and a decision of the Constitutional Court or the Supreme Court that you can click on. And if you want someone to go through it with you, just tell us what happened.
You do not need to know what happened or why. Three things are enough:
A detained person's family can choose a defence lawyer for them, there is no need to wait for the person to do it themselves. The police have 48 hours, then the court has another 24. A lot can be done in that time, or nothing at all. The difference is usually whether the person has someone who knows whom to call.
Write to usThe police may hold a person for 48 hours. Then they release them, or hand them over to a court. What happens in those hours tends to show in everything that follows.
02Pre-trial detention is not a punishment, it is a safeguard. A court may impose it only on three statutory grounds and only when nothing milder will do. But that has to be said out loud, and in time.
03A summons to give an explanation is not yet a charge. But what you say there can become the foundation of the whole case. Or the end of it.
04Anyone can file a criminal complaint, no forms and no lawyer needed. What happens to it next is not so simple. And a false accusation is a criminal offence in itself.
05A ruling opening criminal prosecution means it has started for real. You have 3 days for a complaint. From now on you have rights worth knowing.
06The court decided without seeing you. You have 8 days from delivery to file an objection (odpor). On the ninth day the sentence is final and nobody cares any more what you wanted to say.
07Driving under the influence is, depending on the circumstances, a misdemeanour or a criminal offence. The line is one per mille. The main threat is a driving ban, and that is what hurts the most.
08Not every criminal case has to end with a judgment after a main trial. The law knows ways out: an agreement with the public prosecutor, conditional discontinuation, settlement. But they have their conditions and their price.
09Nobody may enter a home without consent, and a search is an exception reserved for criminal proceedings, only on a written and reasoned warrant from a judge. Ask to see the paper before the door opens.
10Criminal proceedings revolve around the offender. Yet the injured party has rights of their own and a claim to compensation. They just have to raise it in time: at the main trial at the latest, before the taking of evidence begins.
11A European arrest warrant, an extradition request, criminal proceedings in another country. Two legal systems, two sets of deadlines, and usually only one person who understands it.
12Embezzlement is appropriating something that was entrusted to you: company money, a rental car, goods on invoice. The threshold for criminal liability is damage of CZK 10,000. The key word is "entrusted".
13A scuffle outside a bar, insults at a government office, a slap in public. Disorderly conduct is a crime that takes ten seconds to commit and a year to resolve. But not every argument is disorderly conduct, and the courts know how to tell the difference.
14"I'll kill you" in an argument and "I'll kill you" with a weapon in hand are two different things. Threatening is a crime when it can cause reasonable fear. Stalking, when it is long-term. Both sides need to know this.
15Driving during a driving ban is the criminal offence of obstructing the enforcement of an official decision. The courts deal with it daily, and the excuse "I didn't know about the ban" only rarely holds up. What looms is a new, longer ban.
16One punch and the other side has a broken nose. Intentional bodily harm starts at six months and the courts do not treat it as a misdemeanour. What decides is intent, the injury and who started it.
17A kick to a car, a broken window, a spray-painted wall. Damaging someone else's property is a crime from CZK 10,000 of damage; with graffiti, regardless of the amount. Often it is the expert, not the witness, who decides.
18Entering someone else's flat without consent, or refusing to leave. Typically an ex-partner who "still has the keys", or a dispute over a tenancy. Both unlawful entry and unlawful staying are criminal.
19Defamation is criminal when it is untrue and can seriously damage someone's reputation, job or family. On the internet the sentencing range doubles. But most disputes about defamation do not belong in criminal law, and the courts say so out loud.
20After half the sentence (for some, after a third) the court may release a prisoner, provided they have shown they have reformed and can be expected to lead a law-abiding life. It is a right to be considered, not a right to be released. And a disciplinary punishment in prison can ruin everything.
21An accident in which someone died is a crime even without intent. What decides is whether you breached an important duty, and whether the person who died contributed to the accident. The difference is between a suspended sentence and years in prison.
22An untrue statement in a loan or subsidy application is a crime even when you repay the loan properly. The offence is complete on signing, not on any loss. For business owners it is one of the most dangerous traps.
A fine, points, sometimes a driving ban. A penalty order is a decision made without a hearing and without a word from you. You have eight days for an objection, then it is final and nothing more can be done about it.
24A letter from the authority, five working days, and your driving licence is gone for a year. Objections to the recording of points stop the clock, but only if they arrive in time and have something to stand on.
25The driving ban has ended, or half of it has passed. The driving licence does not come back by itself, you have to apply for it. Anyone who does not know that and gets behind the wheel has committed another crime.
26Alcohol, refusing a breath test, an accident with injuries, high speed. The officer seizes the licence card at once and the authority has five working days to decide that you will not get it back until the proceedings end.
The card is tied to one position with one employer. When the job ends, 60 days start running. A change of employer is notified 30 days in advance. Anyone who lets the deadlines pass loses their residence, not just their job.
28The application for extension is filed before validity ends, at the earliest 120 days in advance. Until the decision, the residence fiction applies. But the fiction is not a permit and no further application can be built on it.
29After five years of continuous residence, with a Czech language exam and a clean criminal record. Permanent residence can also be revoked, most often after a conviction. Even then the authority must weigh what it will do to the family.
30The police have decided that you must leave and may not return for a certain time. You have ten days to appeal. Both the appeal and the court action have suspensive effect, but only if they arrive in time.
31Five years of permanent residence, an exam in Czech language and civics, a clean criminal record, income, no debts to the state. And one exception: a refusal on security grounds that no court will review.
Criminal law is the field where people need help the most and look for it the least. They are ashamed. They think a defence lawyer is for "real criminals". Or they believe that if they explain everything honestly, the police will understand and they will go home.
But criminal proceedings are not a conversation. They are a procedure with rules, deadlines and records, in which every party has its role. The police investigate, the public prosecutor prosecutes, the court judges. And the defence lawyer is the only one whose role is to stand on your side. Nobody else has that in their job description.
This is not a website about one law firm. It is a website about what will happen to you in the proceedings and what you can do about it, backed by statute and case law. If you decide you want someone to do it with you, your enquiry goes from here to a lawyer who practises criminal law. See the footer.
A few sentences about what happened. No formalities and no fear of saying it wrong. It cannot be said wrong, at most imprecisely.
What you are facing, which deadlines are running and what to do first. And what it will cost, before you commit to anything.
At the interview, over the case file and in court. Someone watches the deadlines, you know what is going on, and nobody is surprised.
Attorney-client privilege is not marketing, it is a statutory duty. Your lawyer may not tell the police, the court, or your mother.
Whatever happened, criminal law has seen it before. People make mistakes. Some of them are called crimes. They are still human mistakes.
That is not their question. Their question is: how to protect you as well as possible in these proceedings. Everything else is the job of other people in robes.
It depends on the scope of the matter, and that cannot be said over the phone without seeing the case file. What can be said: you will learn the price in advance, either as a flat fee for the whole matter or as an hourly rate with an estimate. The invoice at the end should not be another criminal case.
If you do not have sufficient means, you can ask the court for a free defence or a defence at a reduced fee (§ 33(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure). You do not have to be homeless for the court to grant it; the Constitutional Court said so explicitly (IV. ÚS 1104/25). We can help with the application.
As the accused, no. You have the right to refuse to testify, and it may not be held against you. Whether to testify, when and what is a decision made with a cool head and after consulting your lawyer. Not at three in the morning at a police station.
Yes. The message is read only by the lawyer, who is bound by confidentiality about everything she learns from a client. The police, the court and your partner will learn nothing.
No. Criminal proceedings take place where the matter happened, and a defence lawyer travels to clients. A case file reads the same in Cheb as in Ostrava. Many things can also be handled remotely.
Then you need a defence lawyer more than anyone. A defence is not about claiming nothing happened. It is about making sure the proceedings follow the rules, that the sentence matches the act and not someone's mood, and that one mistake does not become your whole life.
From the Europaius database, which holds over a million decisions of Czech courts and the current wording of statutes from the official e-Sbírka collection. Every link leads to the full text. The decisions are chosen by hand for each situation, not generated.