Young Shawn Matlock's Friday post was the self-referentially titled From the Realm of the Absurd, a mild rant about the Spanish-language nutritional information sticker covering the English-language nutritional information on the label of his favorite beans, which he describes as "very good for Mexican dishes." The trivial case of the bean label is not, of course, a big deal. Shawn is making a metaphor out of a

Kaufman criminal-defense lawyer Robert Guest is looking for feedback from people who have served on criminal juries in Texas. An excellent idea. Robert would like answers to these eight questions: 1. What was the offense? 2. What was the verdict? 3. When was the trial and how long was it? 4. What evidence persuaded the jury? 5. Was the police officer a good witness? 6. What was

Normally I stay away from water-cooler topics, but, having represented numerous alleged weenie-wagglers in Texas, I was naturally curious about the facts and the law in Senator Larry Craig's Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport case. Here, as the arresting officer describes them, are the facts: Sergeant Karsnia is investigating lewd conduct in the men's restroom at the airport. He occupies a stall in the restroom, sitting in there for

Scott Greenfield has been having a discussion with his multiple personalities, all of whom are named "Steve", about what to do with 3Ls (presumably when they're not on law review, tormenting law profs). Scott and the Steves propose actually teaching law students how to be lawyers. I've been giving a lot of thought lately to the woeful preparation law school provides us for practicing law. It could

My dad, who resides at the moment in Melbourne, Australia, sent me this article from The Age newspaper about the legal team defending Peter Dupas, "one of Australia's most notorious killers." (L-R John Bentley, David Drake, Mark Regan)I enjoy good newspaper profiles of American criminal-defense lawyers. It always seems to me that criminal-defense lawyers across the country are more alike, in ways that I consider important, than

When picking a jury, you don't have to get every venireperson on your side. I was reminded of this recently when I found in my files a letter from a potential juror in a trial I tried a couple of years ago. My client was charged with possessing two kilos of cocaine with the intent to deliver it. According to Roberto Carlos Montalvo, a DEA informant, the

Miami criminal-defense lawyer Brian Tannebaum writes about The Failures of Our System, which in his view begin with the truth "[t]hat we are a victim of the notion that we are all unsafe." That causes our system to be based on "a media driven perception of 'what the public wants'", which renders lawmakers unable "to separate those who should not be labeled", which deprives prosecutors and judges

Missouri criminal-defense lawyer Randy England has had a string of interesting, provocative posts in recent days (I've added him to the blawgroll). Here, he blogs about "Cheatin' prosecutors and blind defense attorneys". (New York criminal-defense lawyer Scott Greenfield, inspired, took up the subject here.) Here's the money quote from Randy's post: I’ll give the client a sympathetic ear, but I do him no favor by pretending there

Sarena Straus, at Prosecutor Post-Script, shares a career prosecutor's feelings On Being a Prosecutor. Generally speaking, prosecutors throughout the country, regardless of jurisdiction, are underpaid, overworked and underappreciated. Many of my younger prosecutors make less than their secretaries. . . . The politicians are of no help, either. Every year they pass new laws, usually without consulting with the folks who have to enforce them, to make

I wrote here about subpoenaing cellphone records generally. Here is the address for subpoenaing cellphone records from T-Mobile (encompassing what were formerly Aerial and VoiceStream): Custodian of Records T-Mobile Subpoena Compliance 4 Sylvan Way Parsippany NJ 07054 (f) 973.292.8697 973.292.8911 Technorati Tags: investigation, subpoenas