Today while cross-examining my client, the prosecutor took two verbal swings at me personally. He suggested that I was responsible for my client's account of the facts and suggested that I was calling the state's witnesses liars. What does that mean?

For trial, I have a collapsible wheeled file box (like one of these, but I have a cheap generic one from OfficeMaxDepot). When I'm not in trial mode, the box folds up and stores under the couch in my office. When I am in trial mode, the box expands to about 13.5"W X 12.5"L X 13"D -- big enough to hold several large 3-ring binders, my code

"When I heard that you had been hired, I knew this was going to be a really tough case."

When cross-examining an unknown witness, you must observe the Motorcycle Rule. This is the rule that kept me alive through years of riding a motorcycle in Houston traffic (for a while, I had no usable car, and rode everywhere). The Motorcycle Rule, for those not familiar with it, is this: They are all out to get you. On a motorcycle, that means that you remain vigilant all

[Edited 11/7/2007 to ensure compliance with TDRPC 3.07. Discretion is the better part of valor.] When defending a client, my general style is to go riiiggghhhtttt up to the line and lean waaaaaayyyyyyy over. In one white-collar trial once, a long time ago, I asked a question of a witness today that the prosecutor thought crossed over the line. The prosecutor, when the jury was sent out,

[Edited 11/7/2007 to ensure compliance with TDRPC 3.07. Discretion is the better part of valor.] Three of the State's civilian witnesses testified today. They didn't do us much harm -- they actually disproved a chunk of the prosecutor's opening statement, and proved a good chunk of our opening for us. One witness testified on direct that she saw a guy with a handgun, and then testified on

We're taking a lunch break from my self-defense trial. When I'm in trial (that's "on trial" for you New Yorkers), I eat low-carb meal replacement bars and drink lots of water. The bars are easy to carry in my trial box, they don't go bad, they don't make my blood sugar spike and crash in the afternoon (so I stay sharp), and they're fairly edible. What about

We got a jury picked on the self-defense case. I got to go dead last, after a) the judge; b) the prosecutor; and c) counsel for my codefendant. We started at about 11, and I got up to talk with the panel at about 3:30. I was tired. The panel was tired. The law is muddled. It was not pretty.

I'm in trial today, picking a jury in Houston on the case that was last set for trial on October 1st. (I'm actually sitting in the courtroom during the lunch break between the judge's voir dire and the State's. My client and his brother are accused of murder; they thought they were about to be victims of a drive-by shooting, so when they heard gunshots they started

One commentator to Scott Greenfield's recent post, The Battle Lines are Drawn, wrote: If you are worrying about harm to others you are in the wrong line of work. Your sole duty is a duty of zealous advocacy to the client. We don't have a duty to do justice. Harming others is part of the job if it serves the client. While I agree withe the last