Suppose that you have a client. The client, after thorough consultation with you, wants you to take some action. That action is in the best interest of the client, is legal, and is ethical. You do it, right? Now suppose that the action is not in the client's best interest, but is legal and ethical. Again, you do it. It's not your call. Now suppose that the action is

This may be the greatest television news interview I've ever watched.

Detroit lawyer DD should not be representing criminal defendants. DD left this comment on this post: "I agree with these guest posts you really don't get anything expect for me content you don't agree with or matches up with your site." One of a criminal-defense lawyer's core competencies is the ability to string together a series of letters into what we in the business call "words," and

Curtis Robert Burns, also known as "Blogger Bob," the Tokyo Rose of the TSA, responded publicly—and petulantly—to Amy Alkon's post questioning TSA thugs concealing their identities from the traveling public (which I wrote about here and Greenfield riffed on here). As usual, TSA's response to criticism is that they did everything "by the book." What Burns and his fellow authoritarians are unable to comprehend is that this is not a defense

I don't, as a general principle, allow anonymous comments here. Chief among the reasons is that the more anonymous people are, the worse they behave. People do things behind tinted glass on the freeway that they would never do on the sidewalk. They say things from the cover of darkness that they would never say in the light of day. Why do TSA goons steal? They steal

The much-discussed Texas secession petition on whitehouse.gov: We petition the Obama administration to: Peacefully grant the State of Texas to withdraw from the United States of America and create its own NEW government. Here's how I might respond, were I the President of the United States: To all the people who have signed this petition: Look, I appreciate that you're frustrated, and I'll do what I am

We get the offers in our email all the time: Hello,I was checking out your Defending People blog and was wondering if you accept guest posts. I have original content that I am looking to post. These articles are written by attorneys focusing on criminal defense and personal injury law as well as a host of other areas.If this sounds like something you would be interested in

The media, when they write about court cases, often get it wrong. They get the facts wrong, or they get the law wrong, or they dumb the story down so much ("I can't write about that, it's inside baseball") that it would fit in a Little Golden Book. Those who work in the courts know this. When potential jurors have read press coverage of the case being tried,

Murray Newman has a rundown of the outcomes of Harris County's criminal judicial elections. The races were closer than they've been since I started practicing law and paying attention to judicial elections. Where the Republicans used to sweep and the Democrats swept all but one bench in 2008 the Republicans captured only two thirds of the nine criminal-district (felony) court benches. I was glad for the Democratic

Here's another sample question from the Texas Board of Legal Specialization: In federal court, where a hearsay statement is admitted, the credibility of the declarant may be attacked by: a. Prior convictions, subject to Rule 609; b. Opinion and reputation testimony concerning the declarant's truthfulness; c. Prior inconsistent statements; d. Specific instance of conduct, if probative of truthfulness or untruthfulness; e. all of the above except d.