If you Google what sentence someone gets for armed robbery, you’ll see a ton of cases where the defendant gets sentenced to 21 years in jail. That’s right, 21 long, hard years in jail.

Why is that?

Under the Illinois sentencing guidelines for robbery, a defendant will get a minimum of six years in jail if they are found guilty of robbery and a maximum of 30 years. But if you commit forceful robbery with a weapon, which usually means a gun, it’s a mandatory 15 year enhancer to the sentence.

If you take the mandatory 15 years, plus the minimum six years, you get a total of 21 years for the sentence.

That is a really long time and a stupid decision or one that was done while intoxicated on drugs can literally ruin your life. This is all true even if someone wasn’t shot or otherwise injured. It’s a very tough gun law.

The smart thing of course is to never commit this crime in the first place. That said, if you or someone you love does screw up and do this, it’s incredibly important that you get an experienced attorney in your corner to defend these charges. It’s not cheap, and it requires A LOT of work by the lawyer, but in many cases they can get the charges reduced to a lesser crime. That doesn’t always mean that you walk away with no punishment, but it can mean that you don’t lose out on the best years of your life.

Think about it. If you have a child and get the minimum sentence, your child will be an adult before you can ever see them outside of a prison. So if you get a really good attorney and end up with a five year sentence, that actually is an incredible result. In fact, if you read in the paper that someone charged with armed robbery or aggravated armed robbery received a sentence of less than ten years it’s a sign that either the case against them wasn’t very good or that they had a fantastic lawyer in their corner.

So where can you find a top robbery defense lawyer in Chicago, Wheaton, Joliet or Waukegan? That’s why people come to us. Since 2001 our lawyers have helped more than 300,000 people find the right Illinois attorney for their case. Call us at (312) 346-5320 to speak to one of our attorneys for free and in confidence. We’ll treat you like a family member or friend and do whatever we can for you.