Our Experience
Each of the lawyers working in our law firm specialises in the same fields of law. This facilitates an efficient collaboration in those cases where more than one lawyer is required, for example in larger criminal proceedings under business criminal law involving a large number of defendants.
We assist many kinds of clients under criminal law. Our activities range from accusations of petty crimes such as “student loan fraud”, criminal assault or traffic violations to narcotics crimes and capital crimes. One particular specialisation of the law firm is criminal proceedings requiring special knowledge from other fields of law, in particular taxation law or Internet law.
Despite the high degree of specialisation, we regard ourselves as lawyers with farsightedness. To the extent that circumstances reveal relations to civil law or taxation law, the lawyers of the law firm deal with the parallel proceedings in suitable cases themselves. Even criminal law revisions or constitutional complaints have already been successfully represented by the lawyers of the law firm Rudolph Rechtsanwälte in select cases.
Fields of Law
Criminal law
Many standards of constitutionality may appear to be self-evident to us today. However, in practice, they have to be recalled and asserted anew every day.
Even if many criminal law cases are prepared by so-called “deals” between the defence, prosecutor and court these days, defence is in principle a fight. A fight for the truth. A fight for the defendant’s rights. A fight for the protection of constitutional standards.
Modern criminal defence is always a tightrope walk. A lawyer who is not able to put himself in the position of the accused will achieve very little at court, nor can a good defence lawyer afford to not having a feel for the judge’s, a witness’ or the general public’s perspective.
When the truth is being struggled for, uncomfortable questions sometimes need to be posed. A defence lawyer deserving this name always presupposes courage and the ability to manage conflict.
Medical criminal law
Criminal proceedings against doctors, pharmacists, nursing staff and those responsible for hospitals concern billing, treatment outcomes, cooperation arrangements and the handling of patient data. Alongside the criminal case, the licence to practise, healthcare authorisation and professional regulation may be at stake; each follows its own rules.
We defend healthcare professionals and those responsible for healthcare services from the first letter from investigators through to trial, keeping the professional consequences of each possible resolution in view. We do not represent patients pursuing claims.
Law on taxation crimes
The law on taxation crimes is a special case, which, in contrast to other criminal cases, is not dealt with by the police or state prosecutor on behalf of the investigating authorities. In fact, in most cases, you have to deal with tax fraud investigators and a civil penalty crimes body in the fiscal authorities.
Frequently, criminal proceedings for tax offences are initiated by a search or after a tax audit. In this case, a specialist lawyer should be called on without delay. Due to the neutrality of the defence lawyer and the particular position in terms of the proceedings, options for action are often opened up to the lawyer, which are not available to the tax advisor.
Criminal proceedings under taxation and business law can often not be separated from each other in more complex cases. This means, for example, that tax inspectors are bound over to inform the state prosecutor of peculiarities in accounts giving reason to suspect a corruption crime (cf. § 4 V No. 10 German Income Tax Act). Criminal proceedings under taxation law can soon become a case for business criminal law involving the entire company.
Business criminal law
The scope of offences falling under the term business criminal law is large. Equally extensive is the term criminal business law itself, which is not defined by law.
When thinking of criminal proceedings under business criminal law, one typically thinks of files with several thousands of pages, which often take an excruciatingly long time at court. On the one hand, this is often because there is “a lot at stake” and the consequences of being found guilty are serious for the defendant. This is augmented by the fact that many creative structures of business move in a legal grey zone. The cases cannot be pressed into a black or white scheme without further ado as would be required for a conviction under criminal law.
A further challenge for the defence pertaining to business criminal cases lies in the central legal problems having their roots in special statutory regulations. Nevertheless, the process is conducted as per The German Code of Criminal Procedure – with all instruments of criminal proceedings – of which both prosecutors and defence lawyers happily avail themselves in order to gain a better position in the proceedings at court.
In the field of business criminal law, a dedicated and competent defence team is thus required, which is acquainted with the particularities of business criminal law, in order to be able to act at eye level with the investigative authorities and courts.
Cybercrime
In Bavaria, major investigations into internet-related crime are conducted by the Central Office for Cybercrime Bavaria at the Prosecutor General’s Office in Bamberg. Since October 2024, section 55c GZVJu has concentrated cybercrime cases within its statutory definition from across Bavaria at the Regional Court of Bamberg, where a regional court has first-instance jurisdiction under the provisions specified there. These cases concern not only operators of trading platforms or fraudulent online shops, but also employees, service providers, account holders and software developers, often living abroad.
We defend clients in these proceedings from Nuremberg: in connection with searches and arrest warrants, allegations of fraud, money laundering or aiding and abetting, the examination of digital evidence and trials before the Regional Court of Bamberg. For clients outside Germany, we work with their lawyers locally.
Taxation laws
The lawyers of this law firm also represent in suitable cases clients in formal proceedings under taxation law, in particular in objections to tax assessment notices and at fiscal court.
More on this topic soon
Company consulting in criminal law matters
Criminal law compliance is also becoming increasingly important for medium-sized businesses.
This includes the issue of preventing corruption by means of external lawyers of trust as well as training staff.
More on this topic soon
Rudolph
