Mr. Yoder is the partner in the Firm that specializes in Federal Offenses.
He has a very successful practice defending those individuals who have
been charged in the federal system. Recently he resolved a case in the
Northern District of Ohio where his client was caught using access devices
to collect the PIN numbers on ATM machines and also the individual user's
passwords. It was alleged that the individuals involved in the conspiracy
attempted to withdraw over $1.2 million dollars.
Over an 11 month period of time Mr. Yoder argued not that his client did
not help in facilitating the crime, which the client had already admitted
to, but he argued that the actual loss was far less than $1.2 million.
This was an important factor, because based on the United States Sentencing
Guidelines Mr. Yoder's client was facing an increase of 6 points for
sentencing. The United States Attorney's Office was not willing to
concede this point so the issue was briefed and argued to the Court. After
thoroughly researching the issue Mr. Yoder was able to find case law out
of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals which allowed the Judge to make
a determination that the actual loss was much less and sentence accordingly.
At sentencing the Judge found that the actual loss was less than $29,000
and as a result he exercised his discretion and sentenced the client to
the lowest possible outcome. A great result for a young client who made
a horrible mistake.