The terrain in last week's DUI jury trial shifted unexpectedly yesterday afternoon. Two of the State's witnesses decided that they had better things to do after lunch on a Friday than return to court. One of the witnesses, the arresting officer who was on the stand when we broke at eight o'clock Thursday evening, had (I learned afterwards) been reluctant to come to court and had cussed

Trial lawyers are poker players. If you try cases and don't know how to play poker, learn. Don't play "online poker", where you can't look in the faces of the people whose money you're taking -- that's not poker, it's a video game. Learn to play real poker at a real table with real human beings.Trial lawyers have to be flexible. Don't just learn "Texas  Hold'em", either.

The terrain of a trial comprises the factors that the trial lawyers don't create -- for example, the spirit of the times, the state of the law, the unchangeable facts and, to a great extent, the conduct of the judge. The lawyers know what the spirit of the times, the state of the law, and the unchangeable facts are before trial begins. But with an unpredictable judge

Like the man says, I have no sense of humor when it comes to totalitarianism, but maybe this was amusing the first time: It was probably not as funny the second time: And you'd hope this guy would have flat-out known better:

If I need to have my spleen removed, I want someone truly exceptional doing the job, and not Jo Sixpack. I want the surgeon whose brilliance and creativity and education make him or her stand out from the crowd and even arouse the envy and resentment of ordinary people. Does that make me an elitist? If so, I'm okay with that. I'll let the non-elitists have the

Reader Trafficnerd gave us a few links to pages about the HPD's DEA-funded PlateScan Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) systems. None of them, oddly enough, mention the DEA funding that Officer Friendly told me about.Here, though, is Houston HIDTA (High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task force) director Stan Furce's "So, you want an LPR" article from the August issue of Law Officer Magazine.A highlight:The license data LPRs collect

From Simple Justice:People are scared to death of what will happen to them and their families, and they struggle to make sense of the mass confusion in Washington, Wall Street and the thousand pundit voices that tell a completely difference story every 30 seconds. And so, in times of turmoil, we return to the work of Abraham Maslow, the Hierarchy of Needs.  When people are deeply concerned

A message from one of my Facebook friends, a fellow MOB trumpet player who is now a lawyer an attorney in Chicago:Today is the second post by you about jail or court in a few weeks. If you have a serious issue and need help finding good counsel pls let me know.

According to Officer Friendly, those are DEA-supplied license-plate reading cameras mounted to the trunk of the patrol car. I don't like it, but it's good for business -- my business -- I suppose.

While both a prosecutor and a defense lawyer will bend over backwards to help their friends, the fundamental character difference between a prosecutor and a defense lawyer is that the defense lawyer will bend over backwards to help yours.This morning a prosecutor admitted reading my blog (welcome!) and protested that I generalize too much about prosecutors, and that not all of them are judgmental right-wing death-penalty-loving fans