Posted on October 13, 2009 in Uncategorized

Recurring newbie lawyer question on criminal defense listservs:

"Does anyone have a conflict of interest waiver form they can share?"

(A little background for the nonlawyers: a lawyer is to represent her client's best interests. Each client has his own best interests. A lawyer can't choose between one client's interests and another's; she must serve both. Sometimes this is impossible: when it is in client A's best interests to cooperate with the government against client B, and not in client B's best interest, for example, a direct conflict of interest arises and the lawyer has a problem that she may be able to resolve only by withdrawing from both cases.)Avoiding conflicts of interest is a good idea. One good way to avoid conflicts of interest is not to represent codefendants, people charged with crimes arising out of the same facts.

Sometimes A and B come in to hire the lawyer together. It appears that they have a common defense and no conflict. They've heard good things about the lawyer, or one has used her before, and both want to hire her.

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 Posted on October 12, 2009 in Uncategorized

I'm careful about who I refer potential clients to. The referral reflects on me, I think, and I would rather leave someone to find a lawyer on his own than refer him to a lawyer who isn't going to do an excellent job on his case.

In Texas, I have a good list of criminal-defense lawyers whom I trust to do work that I'd be proud of. I have a few reliable personal injury lawyers. I've got one guy who does transactional and estate-planning work, and one woman who does heavily-contested divorces.

I've never had any luck with referrals to Houston lawyers for ordinary divorces. It may just be that, because of all the negativity surrounding a divorce, people are very rarely happy with their divorce lawyers. Or it may be that, because of all the negativity surrounding a divorce, divorce lawyers are particularly bad at the kind of client communication that makes clients happy. In any case, I've pretty well stopped recommending divorce lawyers (if you're a Houston divorce lawyer, and you think you get rave reviews from the clients I send you, email me; we'll talk).

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 Posted on October 08, 2009 in Uncategorized

Believe it or not, sometimes criminal defendants have a serious lack of judgment, reason and/or common sense. Some even possess what might be considered a reckless disregard for what's in their best interests. (Not my clients, mind you, but I've noticed that other criminal-defense lawyers seem to represent people who are a mess.)

Todd Taylor, Your Lawyer's Ego & Plea Bargaining

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 Posted on October 08, 2009 in Uncategorized

Here's a picture from Harris County's 263rd District Court yesterday. The prosecutors trying a murder (?) case had laid down a blue tape outline of the dead person's body, chalk-outline style, early in the trial:

When I saw this, my first reaction was: awesome! (coincidentally, that was my nine-year-old's reaction as well). The prosecutors, Brad Hart and Katie Warren, became my trial advocacy heroes of the day. (Sorry, guys; you can't commit such trial ad awesomeness and expect to remain anonymous.)

My second reaction was to ask myself how the defense could best deal with the potentially incendiary effect of the chalk outline? You've got this thing on the floor in the middle of the jurors' field of view that you have to walk around or over every time you approach a witness. It's like trying a case in a crime scene.

And that's probably not a good thing for the defense. Especially if it was the State's idea to take the jury there.The obvious reaction: whine to the judge and ask him to tell them not to do it. That's probably a good place to start, for the sake of the record at least. But what if the judge allows it to remain?

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 Posted on October 06, 2009 in Uncategorized

As I've grown older and more insightful (and, Jen would say, crankier), I've realized that competence is very important to me, and incompetence annoys me.

General competence-being able to deal with whatever adventures life might hand you-is a certain virtue in my world. I had a next-door neighbor for the last few years, Jack, who had a high level of general competence. He was a former Marine EOD tech and a computer geek. We weathered a couple of hurricanes together, pooling our competences to get houses boarded up (when plywood was next-to-impossible to find) and electricity generated (when generators and gasoline were next-to-impossible to get). Jack also taught me to shoot a But now Jack and his wife are splitting-general competence is not necessarily global-and selling the house, so I hope to wind up with another neighbor who doesn't hop in the SUV and head for high ground whenever a little wind threatens.

Specific competence is important too. There are many things that I know how to do well. I may not be able to do all of them myself, but I know at least enough to recognize technical competence-or incompetence-when I see it.One of the things that I know how to do well is pick a jury. Another is ride a motorcycle.

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 Posted on October 05, 2009 in Uncategorized

I talked to a lady this weekend who had been looking for a criminal-defense lawyer for her dad (I had a conflict; she wasn't seeking to hire me). She said that one of the lawyers had asked for "ten thousand dollars to start."

Ten thousand dollars is would be on the low end of the range of reasonable fees for the case, but "to start" is dangerous language when you're hiring a criminal-defense lawyer.

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 Posted on October 01, 2009 in Uncategorized

To figure out who to send the subpoena to for cellphone records, go to NANPA Central Office Code Utilized Report.

Fill in state and NPA (area code).

Find your exchange (first three digits) in the third column of the chart. The company name is in the fifth column of the chart.

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 Posted on September 30, 2009 in Uncategorized

Greeley, Colorado lawyer Todd Taylor asks, Are Money & Social Media Ruining the Legal Profession?, a bit of a paean to "small-town" practice:

In the Satires, Juvenal thought the problem of getting paid was a reason to avoid a career in the law:

"There's no money in it. Argue yourself hoarse before some bumpkin of a judge–what do you get? A couple of bottles of vin rouge; and you've got your clerks to pay. The only way to get a name is to live like a lord; that's how clients pick their counsel. And Rome soon eats up your capital that way. If you're thinking of making a living by speeches you'd better get off to Gaul or Africa."So not much has changed in the practice of law in 2000 years. You still find bumpkin judges. (But, for the record, none of the judges I appear before are evil or unfair, at least as far as a reasonable attorney would understand those terms.) You've still got your clerks to pay. Some clients still pick their counsel based on their high-falutin' ways and larger-than-life reputations. (That's what my blood-sucking social media expert tells me, anyways. Something about, "You are what Google says you are.") And Rome! Don't even get me started...So it's off to Gaul and Africa to make the fine speeches–and today's small town lawyer may have to settle for a couple of bottles of wine, or whatever their modern equivalent may be.It turns out that one advantage to being a small town trial lawyer is that you find you're already living in Gaul or Africa. You also find that your clients are more likely to be put out–not turned on–if you're living like a lord. My clients want to be served, they want to trust me with their confidences and their livelihoods, and while they don't mind if I like to make speeches from time to time, they're more impressed by how I and the people I employ treat them and care about their problems.

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 Posted on September 28, 2009 in Uncategorized

My friend Josh Reiss and I were at Rice together, and now he's a prosecutor at the Harris County DA's Office. The love of Josh's life, his wife Anh, is fighting a blood cancer called Myelodysplastic Syndrome, and needs a bone marrow stem cell transplant. The following is a guest post from Josh:

There are times in life when you never realize something is a problem until it becomes your problem. This is one of those cases. There simply are not enough people registered to be donors in the National Marrow Donor Program. Right now there are approximately 7 million total. There is a critical shortage among Asian and African-Americans. It takes about 10 minutes to register and you truly can save someone's life.

It might be helpful to explain where we have been, where we are now, and where we hope to go.

Anh and I have been a part of each other's lives since our Freshman year at Rice. We were engaged during our Junior year and married shortly thereafter. After college we moved to New York City and had two children, Alexandra and Aaron. While in New York Anh attended medical school and completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at New York University. We moved back to Houston in 1999 and have been here since. Anh has been in private practice at Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital since that time. We estimate that she has delivered over 3,000 babies during her career and is a very skilled surgeon as well.

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 Posted on September 28, 2009 in Uncategorized

Heard at the criminal courthouse:

We are 99% animal and 1% civilized, and it's the one percent that gets us into trouble.

It's true, I think. Not because the one percent of us that is civilized motivates us to do the bad things that get us into trouble, but because the one percent likes to pretend that the 99% doesn't exist. Like Paul Smith says, "I Spent Most of My Energy Hiding Myself From Me". (Paul's talking in terms of his "real self" and "false self"; same thing, for my money.)

Most crimes-most mala in se, at least-do not have complex motivations: they're motivated by a) anger; or b) fear; or c) both. The murderer might be angry at his victim. The rapist might be afraid of losing respect when his impotence is recognized. The thief might be afraid of losing his position in the pack.

Fear and anger are powerful things. But we all feel anger and fear, and most of us keep them under control most of the time.

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