McGirt Doesn’t Impact Federal Jurisdiction or Tribal
Video Transcribed: Have you recently been charged with a crime, but you know it’s going to be dismissed because of the new McGirt ruling, but you don’t really know what happens after that? Well, stick around.
My name is Ryan Cannonie, I am the Tahlequah Criminal Defense Attorney for the Wirth Law Office in Tahlequah. We’ve done all these videos talking about what happens because of McGirt, that state courts can’t prosecute you. Only the Feds and the tribes have authority. So what does that mean? That means that once your case is dismissed in state court, and even before then a little bit if they wanted to, it doesn’t have to be, they have to wait a day or anything.
They can do it the same day, in fact, or even the day before. The federal government, through the US attorney’s office or the tribal governments through their Attorney General’s offices, can file the same charges against you based on or whatever their statutes allow for based on the same events and then prosecute you through their power to prosecute you.
So McGirt doesn’t impact federal jurisdiction or tribal. They can still prosecute you. So, one thing to consider when looking at an attorney is, is this attorney going to be able to help me throughout my entire case? Or is this attorney going to be someone I’m going to have to switch horses mid-race here?
One thing good about the Wirth Law Offices is that we do have a lot of attorneys. While I’m the only one in our Tahlequah office, we do have offices around the state, and our main office in Tulsa, where several attorneys, go in there to the office.
We have attorneys that do federal law and federal courts. And we also, like myself, have some that practice in tribal court. I’m licensed in the Cherokee Nation. I’m working on a couple of other tribal courts right now, but I am licensed with Cherokee. I am licensed in the state of Oklahoma. And so I can handle cases both at state court and in tribal court.
Now, one thing, a lot of people don’t realize is just because you’re an attorney in Cherokee County, Oklahoma, doesn’t mean that you can be an attorney in the Cherokee Nation. You actually have to be admitted into their bar. Their Supreme court has to approve people to be attorneys within the tribe. So, you can’t just go out there and be an attorney.
You have to fill out an application and be approved before they’ll let you represent people. Other tribes have the same process or the same requirements.
Their processes might be slightly different. The federal government, also the same thing here. In fact, you can’t just be a federal attorney. You have to be admitted to practice in the Eastern District or the Northern District or the Western District of Oklahoma.
So we have attorneys that are admitted to some of these districts. We have attorneys like myself, as I said, that’s admitted in Cherokee Nation. So these are some things to consider when looking for an attorney.
Another thing to consider, and this has come up a couple of cases, I’ve had to refer them out to other people, is that if you need an attorney for another state, like we attorneys with Wirth Law Office that are licensed in Kansas, but there are sometimes people need an attorney in Texas or somewhere like that. And so they’ll call because they’ll see these videos and they’ll want us to represent them. Well, the problem is I can’t represent you in Texas because I’m not licensed in Texas.
And so this is something a lot of people don’t realize about attorneys, is that we have to be licensed in the court that we are practicing in. And in some cases we have to be admitted into what they call their bar, meaning their attorney group, to be able to practice.
If you have questions as to whether or not we can help you in whatever court you’re in, whatever state you’re in, whatever tribe you’re being prosecuted in. And please give us a call. Go to our website, tahlequahattorney.com. Shoot us a web form. We’ll be able to help you out. Thank you.
