I had a conversation recently with a woman who had accused her husband of hitting her. I was explaining her position in the criminal case: "You won't have a lawyer, since you're not a party. You're a witness." "I'm not a witness," she replied indignantly, "I'm a victim."This is, I'm afraid, the spirit of these American times: if victimhood isn't acknowledged, the victim is offended. There is

Friday, Fine clarified that he declared the procedures Texas has in place to carry out the death penalty unconstitutional, a legal parsing even to the prosecutors trying the case. The Houston Chronicle clings doggedly to the false proposition that Kevin Fine "declared the death penalty unconstitutional Thursday." On Friday Judge Fine clarified why he was declaring the procedures unconstitutional, not that he was declaring the procedures unconstitutional:

Findlaw is looking for a dreckblog writer:KEY RESPONSIBILITIES: - Track legal news and developments on a daily basis, using multiple information sources - Write blog posts reporting on legal news and related legal information of interest to a consumer audience, under the direction of an editor - Work with FindLaw Social Media Team to optimize blog posts using best practices in tagging, keyword usage, headline creation, content

More news, documents, and analysis of Kevin Fine’s order holding the Texas death penalty procedure statute, Code of Criminal Procedure Article 37.071, unconstitutional: Yesterday I brought you the motion, and the order Judge Fine signed. I explained how the press had the story wrong (the death penalty isn’t unconstitutional; the procedural statute is; correcting the statute would put the State back in the death penalty business in

A courtroom observer reports that Judge Fine took judicial notice of more than 200 death row inmates exonerated, most due to DNA retests, which called into question many more cases where DNA was not available to retest. The following are approximate quotes from Judge Fine: I must decide what our evolving standards or decency are, such that society recognizes standard of fairness and liberty that a state

Brian Rogers of the Houston Chronicle reported today that Judge Kevin Fine of the 177th District Court "declared the death penalty unconstitutional." This caused the Chronicle's anonymous commenters to gibber ignorantly in righteous indignation like a cage full of unusually stupid monkeys. Which is always fun. Paul Kennedy was immediately on the story, for which Jeff Gamso gave him kudos. The Houston Press posted on it, complete

Rule 7.02 Communications Concerning a Lawyer’s Services(a) A lawyer shall not make or sponsor a false or misleading communication about the qualifications or the services of any lawyer or firm. A communication is false or misleading if it:(1) contains a material misrepresentation of fact or law, or omits a fact necessary to make the statement considered as a whole not materially misleading;It offends me when people steal

As illustrated by the ‘problems’ firms are experiencing with X and Y geners, there has been a global values evolution. These generations are less willing to accept the same incursions on their family and social lives in return for rewards in the future. They are also less tolerant of organisations that fail to give them the opportunity to be part of a larger cause, one that exists

David Ball, co-author of Reptile, is asking criminal lawyers to help him develop a list of "reasons we lose criminal defense cases." He wants to hear from lawyers in the trenches who deal with these problems all the time.  The list will help him and his team develop the use of Reptilian advocacy for criminal defense, where he believes it will become just as powerful for us

It turns out that insurance defense lawyers are putting at least some effort into finding new ways to try cases. They have a magazine, For the Defense, and an associated blog (sadly uncommented-on). Kathy Cochran, writing on the blog, takes note of David Ball and Don Keenan's Reptile: This book posits that jurors must be convinced that a verdict for the plaintiff will make the community safer