I'll tell you a little secret that most lawyers don't seem to realize: our losses make the best war stories; the cases you win are, but for the things that went wrong, not stories worth telling. When you've lost a jury trial, I don't want to hear about how your client, your investigator, the judge, or anyone else's screwups led to the conviction. I don't want to

Three virtually-identical emails from "Anthony Evans" and "Randy Miller" at linxmonster.com:I was looking at websites under the keyword dui attorney [City] Texas and came across your site . . . . I see that you're ranked # [X] in Google. I'm not sure if you're aware of why you're ranked this low but more importantly how easily correctable this is. There's no reason you can't have a

Baby criminal-defense lawyer Murray Newman writes:The thing I loved the most about being a prosecutor was helping victims of crime. There was a profound feeling of doing something important when meeting with the victim’s family on a murder case, or the surviving members of an aggravated sexual assault, robbery, or assault and telling them you would do everything in your power on their cases. I think prosecutors,

Following Walter Olson’s (Overlawyered) posts about the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, I thought I’d check out the criminal penalties for violation of the CPSIA. Contrast this: Any person who knowingly and willfully violates section 2068 of this title after having received notice of noncompliance from the Commission shall be fined not more than $50,000 or be imprisoned not more than one year, or both.

A couple of the Harris County felony court judges deselected by the voters in November have, as I noted before, hung out their shingles as would-be criminal-defense lawyers. They will, no doubt, advertise their ex-judgeness to the potential clients as a positive. And judicial experience could well be a positive in some cases.One of these ex-judges, however (we'll call her "Ms. Hanger"), as recently as December was

English law blogger CharonQC interviewed U.S. Senior District Court Judge John Kane of Colorado a couple of days ago. Judge Kane had some interesting things to say about the war on drugs (as well as about civil procedure); I linked to the interview here. With the permission of CharonQC, I’ve commissioned a transcript of the podcast. I used iDictate to transcribe it, so it’s not court-reporter quality,

In response to this post, in which I talked about Williamson County, Texas’s criminal discovery policy, WilCo DA John Bradley emailed me: In Williamson County, a defense lawyer receives full and complete discovery, including access to offense reports, before any trial. Mr. Hampton’s commentary is not accurate. Our discovery is more limited if there is a negotiated agreement, but even then discovery of critical information is provided.

Continuing my discussion with "Interested Counsel" about the U.S. criminal justice system. He asks:Another emotive issue over there appears to be disclosure. I had assumed this was similar to our own debate over when, in proceedings, full disclosure should take place. I infer from your (very good) podcast with the self-styled Charon QC that my assumption was wrong. That trials can take place without the Defendant knowing

From Above the Law: A promising Harvard Law School standout told cops during a bizarre drunken tirade that he would "lie and cheat" to ruin them if -- as a future attorney -- he ever calls them to a witness stand, police said. The 3L, an unpaid intern for prosecutors in Dorchester County District courts, also "badged" the cops: "Give me a fucking* ride, I work for

(Can you see the above video? Please let me know in comments.) Austin officials aren’t taking the spoof lightly, noting it is a criminal act. “The sign’s content was humorous, but the act of changing it wasn’t,” Hartley said. Austin police are investigating the situation, and the vandals could face a Class C misdemeanor charge of tampering with a road sign, Hartley said. (Dallas Morning News) A