I'm just trying to find the best lawyer who makes me feel content. So far there hasn't been one that can assure me that punishment will be under 5 years.You will, if you keep trying, find a lawyer who will assure you that punishment will be under five years. This lawyer will be lying to you. Get his promises in writing—it probably won't do you any good,

Courtesy of Robb Fickman, and because Greenfield loves "list" posts, 20 rules for being a criminal-defense lawyer, given by Robb to Craig Still on the occasion of his leaving the DA's Office and joining the Brethren of the Courts (annotations are mine):Craig's List on How to be a Criminal Defense Lawyer1. Get the money up front.2. If a client says money is no problem, that's because he

Here's the application paragraph of the accomplice-witness-as-a-question-of-fact jury instruction from the Harris County jury charge bank.Therefore, if you believe from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that an offense was committed and you further believe from the evidence that the witness, _____ , was an accomplice, or you have a reasonable doubt whether he was or not, as that term is defined in the foregoing instructions, then

For your perusal: Harris County misdemeanor courts, DWI statistics compared between the year ending July 31, 2010 and the previous year (roughly DIVERT and pre-DIVERT). August 2009-July 2010 August 2008-July 2009 DWI Cases Pending at Start of Period 6,687 6,039 New DWI Cases Filed 12,315 11,341 DWI Motions to Revoke Probation Filed 775 656 Other DWI Cases Reaching Docket 10 7 Total DWI Cases on Docket 19,787

Defending people should be personal. A human being has put his future in your hands, and someone is trying to take that future away. "Don't take it personally" is lousy advice; it may not be necessary to care about the human being you're defending, but it helps—when a lawyer cares about his client, the jury feels it.A funny thing often happens in a criminal jury trial, though:

We recently had a contested election for the office of President Elect in our association. Both candidates were gracious and treated each other with respect; however, some of us were not so gracious. Statements were placed in emails and blogs that did not reflect well on us or our association. One member published a blog in which he called one candidate a liar based in part on

Who is this a picture of?Step back from your computer ten or fifteen feet; who is it a picture of now?

I had just explained to the jury all the reasons that the government's star witness couldn't be believed (based on his criminal history): he's a thief, and thieves lie; he's a robber, and robbers lie; he's an organized criminal, and organized criminals lie; etc. Government lawyer Connie Spence gets up for her closing argument. "You know who else lies?", she screeches. "LAWYERS lie!" And she writes the

Before I euthanized my account there, I had hundreds of "friends" on Facebook. Most of them I knew only slightly; some of them I didn't even really like. Precious few of them were genuine friends.Someone (I wish I could find a link to give proper credit) coined the term "frends" to represent those online acquaintances—similar to friends, but not quite—a variance that makes all the difference in

I've been on a tear about Hartley, R.D., et. al.'s Do you get what you pay for?Aside from their sloppy writing and questionable conclusions, the collaborators wrote a couple of things that really ticked me off.First, they consistently wrote about what happens to human beings in a criminal courthouse as "case processing," as in:Public defenders, like prosecutors and judges, want to ensure the smooth and efficient processing