In a criminal case, the state, through a prosecutor, initiates the suit, while in a civil case the victim brings the suit. Persons convicted of a crime may be incarcerated, fined, or both. Criminal defense attorneys represent clients who have been accused of committing a crime, and defend their rights at each stage of a misdemeanor or felony case -- from an arrest to an appeal after conviction. Criminal defense attorneys may be hired privately or provided by the government (called "public defenders").
Alpharetta is a city in north Fulton County, Georgia, United States. It is one of the most affluent communities in the state. According to a 2008 estimate, Alpharetta's population is 49,903. Selected for its location next to a spring, Alpharetta began as a campground, originally known as New Prospect Camp Ground until late 1858. Officially chartered on December 11 of that year, Alpharetta (supposedly Greek for "first town") served as the county seat of Milton County until the end of 1931 when Milton was merged with Fulton County to avoid bankruptcy during the Great Depression. Despite Alpharetta's poor start, and it being one of the more distal, large suburbs in metro Atlanta, Alpharetta now features several mid-rise buildings, which are home to many high-tech companies including Hewlett-Packard, UPS Supply Chain Solutions, RedPrairie, Radiant Systems, Infor, Lucent, Nortel, IBM, Sun Microsystems, AT&T, Siemens, McKesson Corporation, Verizon, Verizon Wireless, Alltel, E-Trade, Hansgrohe, General Electric, and LexisNexis. In 2009, Forbes ranked Alpharetta as the number 1 "reloville" in the United States.