I want to talk about the proposed amendments to the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct and the State Bar of Texas's war on flat fees, but to care about that you need to know why flat fees are good for people charged with crimes.So your loved one is charged with a serious crime. There are two ways we can handle this fee. Either you pay me

It’s enough for me that the State Bar wants to do away with flat fees. Most people who have the money to pay me a flat fee, in which I accept the risk that litigation will drag on and the client accepts the risk that it won’t, could not possibly afford to deposit enough in trust to cover my hourly rate through every reasonably anticipable contingency of

In the wake of a tragic shooting in Tucson, members of Congress and the media mourn and soberly reflect along with the rest of America. No, I’m just kidding. In the wake of a tragic shooting in which six people who weren’t members of Congress were killed, members of congress rush to exploit the tragedy for their own ends. Peter King of New York wants to make

From today’s Houston Chronicle—the front page:U.S. agents are armed with the secrets of a convicted Houston gunrunner, information that could lead them to top Mexican drug-cartel bosses and the Texas firearms dealers suppling high-powered weapons.[Defendant] was sentenced to three years in federal prison as a result of a plea agreement that offered leniency in exchange for telling U.S. officials about his criminal contacts, according to court papers.”[Defendant]

Prosecutors Lester Blizzard and Kayla Allen, however, asked Ellisor for life sentences to send a message to anyone who would drive while intoxicated. (KHOU.) Howard is an unsympathetic character. Because he is an unsympathetic character, it’s easy to send him to prison for life. Blizzard and Allen were arguing for general deterrence: “send a message.” But for the same reason that it would be easy to send

Word is that Alex Bunin, Harris County's first Public Defender, has chosen Bob Wicoff to head his appellate division, and that they have offered positions as assistant PDs to Melissa Martin, Jani Maselli, and Sarah "Bennett's Brain" Wood. Bunin's choice of Wicoff is commendable and, while I deeply resent their cooptation of my trial partner, I have to applaud Bunin and Wicoff's selections: true believers, smart people,

Shortly after Nutt was arrested, State District Judge Kevin Fine reduced his bail from $200,000 to $20,000 without notifying prosecutors, a move that some legal experts said could result in possible discipline for violating judicial ethics. (Chron.com.)Okay. What experts? Here’s the lede from the Chronicle’s article form the 18th on the lowering of Deputy Nutt’s bail:A Houston judge faces possible discipline for violating judicial ethics by reducing

A backlog of thousands of Texas court cases. Drunken drivers convicted on lesser charges. Repeat DWI offenders who don’t have a record of a related conviction or treatment. Those are some examples of what’s bringing together a new coalition that includes Mothers Against Drunk Driving, prosecutors and defense attorneys who support a widespread change in how the state punishes first-time drunken drivers. (Houston Chronicle.) The change in

I've made some punishment arguments to juries that I'm very proud of—arguments that gave me shivers, that got my clients exactly what they wanted. But I don't believe I've ever read—much less made—a punishment argument anywhere near as powerful as this argument to a judge in an intoxicated-manslaughter a second-degree murder case by California criminal-defense lawyer Jacqueline Goodman (via Simple Justice): Everyone is pretending. Pretending that Andrew

“I can’t go through because I have the equivalent of a pacemaker in me,” she said. Hirschkind said because of the device in her body, she was led to a female TSA employee and three Austin police officers. She says she was told she was going to be patted down. “I turned to the police officer and said, ‘I have given no due cause to give up