Are federal grand jury proceedings secret?

Federal grand jury proceedings are usually secret, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t have a lawyer there to help you. If you’re either a witness or a target of a federal grand jury and you’ve been asked to appear, your lawyer can be outside of the federal grand jury proceeding to answer any questions that you might have and to help you with any concerns that you might have. It is essential that if you’ve received a letter either for a subpoena, for documents or for your physical presence at a federal grand jury, for you to contact an experienced criminal defense attorney, because what can often happen is you can appear as perhaps a witness to a crime, and while you’re there testifying, later on there can be issues with that and you can actually become the target of a federal grand jury investigation. So it really is imperative to contact us immediately after receiving any sort of notification that you are required to appear to federal grand jury.

By Jeffrey S. Weiner, P.A.