JUAN ANTONIO MATIZ · ESTRATEGIA LEGAL
Practice Areas
We defend people under investigation or charged, and we represent victims — individuals and companies. We appear before prosecutors, courts and tribunals across Colombia. Advice and client service also in English.
These are the firm’s criminal law services in Colombia. A criminal matter is decided by what is proven. That is why every case is ordered on four planes: factual, legal, evidentiary and strategic. The method is the same for defending a person under investigation and for representing a victim, whether an individual or a company. The way in is the initial consultation: a written opinion, not an engagement.
The method: four planes
They are the same four planes presented on the home page and explained in About the firm. Here it is enough to state them, because every service is an application of them.
Factual plane. Reconstruction of the facts, each tied to its source, to know what can be proven and what cannot.
Legal plane. Examination of the conduct against the structure of the offence, to know what must be proven.
Evidentiary plane. Assessment of each piece of evidence, ours and the other side’s, under the standards of Law 906 of 2004. If the evidence is not enough, the opinion says so; if it is, the case is litigated.
Litigation strategy. With what those three planes can sustain, the theory of the case and the hearing plan are written, from the investigation stage to the appeal.
From those planes come the two fronts of the work: the defence and the representation of the victim. And the specific actions that go with them: preliminary hearings, settlement, good name, detention and habeas corpus. They are the nine entries that follow.
The consultation is the first cut of those planes across your case; if there is an engagement, the plan is executed. What it includes and what it costs is set out in its own page.
Where the method applies: nine services
Filing a Habeas Corpus petition
The clock is running, and that is why it is urgent: the arrest, the time limit and the legal basis are established before the judge. Immediate attention, nationwide.
Representation of persons deprived of liberty
Pre-trial detention, substitution and alternatives to prison are decided on the file, not on the account. Representation during detention and while serving a sentence.
Protection of the right to reputation
Insult, calumny and disclosure of private information: the offence that applies and proof of what was published, not just the grievance. Criminal advice and representation.
Representation at conciliation hearings
You go in with what can already be proved, not to improvise the settlement. Advice and representation before the proceeding and within it, for victims and for the accused.
Assistance in filing a criminal complaint
The complaint orders the facts and the available evidence; it does not replace the investigation. It is written when the plan calls for it, with the offence characterised and the evidence identified.
Advice on the investigation of offences
What may lawfully be gathered and what must not be touched, before deciding whether to report. Legal direction of the investigation, with an investigator working under the lawyer’s written instructions.
Victim representation — individuals and companies
Harm is not narrated: it is built before the judge with evidence. Individuals and companies, in hearings, private prosecution and the redress proceeding.
Representation in preliminary hearings
Arrest, charging, pre-trial detention and the review of investigative acts are decided in hours before the guarantees judge. For those under investigation and for victims, individuals or entities, whether or not they are in Colombia.
Strategic criminal defence
An inventory of our own evidence and the other side’s, and a theory of the case that will hold up in the hearing room. From the preliminary inquiry through to appeal, for individuals and for those who answer for a company.
What does a criminal defence lawyer do?
They represent and defend people under investigation or charged, and they also represent victims, seeking in both cases the best result within the limits of the law. The work covers the initial advice, the design of the legal strategy, the analysis of the evidence, attendance at hearings and, where needed, the appeals against an unfavourable decision.