If a person's personality has changed because of a brain injury, is he still the same person? In representing Vietnam and Gulf War veterans in criminal court, it's been my observation that those most in favor of the current war are hardest on our veterans. Does anyone doubt that those who see all criminal conduct as the result of "choices" will punish the veteran for the "choices"

Exhibit 2 to the Motion for Summary Judgment in Pham v. Jones is a lawyer's solicitation letter to potential clients. He quotes a price range of $100-$300 for most misdemeanor cases, and $500-750 for most felony cases. The lawyer mentions "trial by jury" in the cover letter and twice in the brochure he includes with the letter: once in a list of "alternatives" rather than going to

Voir dire is the process of selecting (or, more accurately, deselecting) a jury. When I begin a voir dire, I don't have a plan; I know what topics I want to discuss, but I don't know how I'm going to discuss them. At some point, I usually like to ask a question that everyone has to answer. I like it to require some thought and reveal something

The mother of potential client called me the other day; she had been looking for a lawyer on the web. She had called one of the "nationwide" criminal defense corporations (you know the ones -- they have names like corporations instead of groups of human beings). She reported to me that they told her that for $15,000 they would give her son a 99% chance of beating

Clay Conrad commented here on my post about State's Rights. Clay questions my statement that "rights cannot be maintained using force:" "if someone seeks to kill me, do I not have a right to defend myself, thereby maintaining my right to live through violent self-defense?" I'm not sure Clay is wrong, but I think he and I have different things in mind. I may have spoken inartfully.

One of the unintended side effects of the Iraq war is that many of our healthiest young men and women are coming home with traumatic brain injuries. Traumatic brain injury, or TBI, has been called the signature wound of the Iraq war. When I learned (from hanging out with lawyers who represent injured people) about the devastating personality changes that can result from TBI, I realized that

As I was leaving the Harris County Criminal "Justice" Center today after a couple of intense (but ultimately successful) struggles on behalf of clients, I had this thought: How many people would give everything they have to know that they were going to walk out of this building at the end of the day?Those of us who get to walk out of the courthouse at the end

Minion of the state Imprisons fellow humans. Is the clapping of one hand Her Buddha-nature? Technorati Tags: law, lawyers, poetry, prosecutors, Zen

Outside the Peachtree Street jail in Atlanta there are bronze plaques inscribed with poems written by inmates. Here is my favorite: Inside the prison There is a prison Inside the person. Technorati Tags: poetry

My explicit exploration of alternative trial technologies started, believe it or not, with "The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists" (Neil Strauss). Jennifer bought it for my dad, and it was such a well-packaged book (black leatherette binding with red ribbon page marker, like a Bible) that I read through it. Reading it, I thought "what works to pick up women should work to influence