Posted on July 17, 2009 in Uncategorized

A must-read, especially for people think that baby prosecutors are magically endowed with wisdom to make decisions affecting other people's futures: the new blogger on the Harris County criminal law block, Life after Esq., is reporting from "baby prosecutors school" in Austin.

With plenty of breathless prose about partying, and palpable sexual tension between Ms. Esq. and "6'2″ and a half", it's like a TV show about high school:

The party boat took off and I was left on the speedboat in my bikini and no clothes. I was slightly concerned about that since they were talking about going straight from the boat to hula hut. That would cause a problem for me. I seemed to be the only person concerned about this. I had a total blast. I wish we could have spent more time doing that!!

Oh. My. God!!!

But that's not the best of it.

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 Posted on July 17, 2009 in Uncategorized

Some chucklehead sent me comment spam, using the same phrase, "Cleveland Internet Marketing Consultant" as his author name and in the text of his comment. (Here's an idea: a WordPress Plugin that automatically marks as spam any comment with the same n-or-more word phrase in both the comment and author fields.)

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 Posted on July 17, 2009 in Uncategorized

We lawyers are a pretty messed-up bunch-more emotionally and psychologically messed-up than the mean. We suffer from higher incidences of alcoholism, drug abuse, and depression than the general population. The lawyer whose career is his whole life, who defines himself in terms of his prowess as a lawyer, is in for disappointment and trouble. Because if you are your successes, then when a case doesn't end as hoped, you are the failure. A common sequel: the fruitless search for fulfillment in ultimately self-destructive behavior.

The lawyer who can strike a healthy balance between clients and family, between career and avocation, between work and life is going to be happier and more fulfilled than the lawyer whose personal life is in smoking rubble because of his monomaniacal fixation on being Lawyer. In other words, a lawyer is a better lawyer when he is happier and more fulfilled.

That lawyers should seek work-life balance is damn near a no-brainer. So much so that even curmudgeon Scott agrees: there has to be an end of the day, when even lawyers can take their uniform off and pretend that they're [or be?] human beings. We can accomplish much greater balance in life without sacrificing or shifting our lives onto the backs of our clients if only the business of lawyers comes to grips with a changing attitude toward how we service our clients.

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 Posted on July 16, 2009 in Uncategorized

Houston DWI attorney Paul Kennedy reports:

A citizen confronted with a first-time DWI will be offered pretrial diversion (if eligible) or 30 days in the county jail. The other option is to ask the judge for probation without a recommendation from the prosecutor.....Said an unnamed source, "the plan is to force people into pretrial diversion."

This is the Harris County DIP (which is now to be called DIVERT: Direct Intervention using Voluntary Education Restitution and Treatment) program he's talking about.

We now know that the offers will be:

1. 30 days in jail for first offenders if they take diversion, probation, or jail time. FIne $750.00

2. 45 days if open container if they take diversion, probation or jail time. Fine $1000.00

The DA's Office will, contrary to Paul's information, be recommending probation for people who don't want DIVERT or 30 days in jail. (But what's the point of that?)

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 Posted on July 15, 2009 in Uncategorized

Anita Mugeni

Anita Mugeni, one of the few criminal-defense lawyers in Rwanda (a place that makes Williamson County look almost civilized).

Recently, Anita defended a woman appealing a conviction sentencing her to death. Despite the seriousness of the charges, the court had not appointed a lawyer and the woman did not know she had a right to one. The woman was accused of murdering her neighbor by poisoning her. As Anita discovered, however, the neighbor was still alive.Anita drove across the country on her own expense to visit the woman in prison. The woman was from a small village and had little education. She was confused and afraid she was going to die. The police had beaten her so severely that she confessed to murdering a woman who was, in fact, still alive.After consoling the woman, Anita returned to the Supreme Court to study the woman's file. She discovered that the alleged poison was never analyzed in a lab – there is no forensic lab in the woman's village. The substance was not even tested on an animal, which is an accepted method of identifying poisonous substances. The Prosecutor and the Court were aware of the lack of evidence and the fact that the woman's neighbor was still alive. But they pressed on with the prosecution.At the time, the death penalty had not been abolished. Without Anita's help, the woman could have been executed. Anita won an acquittal and the woman was released, but there was no way to repair the damage that had already been done. The woman spent three years in pre-trial detention. A widow, she was forced to leave three small children alone at home with no one to care for them. Anita claims that if the woman had access to a lawyer she would not have spent a day in prison.

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 Posted on July 15, 2009 in Uncategorized

Check these out, and tell me what you think:

1. Gamso – For the DefenseOhio Criminal Defense Lawyer Jeff Gamso.

2. What About Paris?Dan Hull's What About {Clients / Paris}

3. Crime & FederalismMike Cernovich: "So long as everyone agrees to believe the lie, then the lie will remain the truth."

4. Cognitive DailyA new cognitive psychology article every day.

5. Houston's Clear ThinkersHouston lawyer Tom Kirkendall.

6. White Collar Crime Prof BlogStetson University law professor Ellen S. Podgor

7. Life after Esq.Another anonymous Harris County prosecutor

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 Posted on July 14, 2009 in Uncategorized

Dan Hull is right.

Effective immediately, absent compelling reasons, this blog will join Dan's blog, What About {Clients / Paris}, in not publishing any comments of anonymous commenters. All comments must be accompanied by commenters' names (first and last) and real and verifiable email addresses.

I've fumed about anonymous commenters for years (I've been blogging for years?!?), but life is too short to fume about something I can fix. There's a lot wrong with the way we're using the internet to communicate, and I'm doing my part to clean up my little corner of it.

Too often today writers online replace precedent and logic with anonymity and sheer volume. Why? Because they can: if they shout that black is white or that ignorance is strength or that 2 + blue = house, it's not going to touch them in the real world. There is no accountability.

This may decimate my comments; am I tossing out the wheat with the chaff?

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 Posted on July 13, 2009 in Uncategorized

Cynthia Henley explains Why the Defense Does not Share Info with the State.

Ken Lammers (CrimLaw) encounters a unique punishment strategy form a defense lawyer in At Least Buy Me Dinner First.

Rick Horowitz (Probable Cause) explains why, if you're in a car that was stopped on the road, You Just Got Pwned!

Brian Tannebaum (Criminal Defense) is tired of the bullshit of "We Have No One In Custody, Legally."

Paul Smith (The Life and TImes of a Texas Country Trial Lawyer) asks, Can You OD On Therapy?

And, inspired by Mike's (Crime & Federalism) kvetch, here are five from outside my usual list of suspect blog sources:

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 Posted on July 08, 2009 in Uncategorized

HCCLA ex-president Robb Fickman joins The Houston Justice League:

I know this is hard to believe...so hear me out...He was driving back from Lake Charles (he wasn't gambling...he was...um...sight seeing at some of the industrial plants, and relaxing on the lovely beach fronts on the soothing lake), and when he neared the Highlands exit, traffic slowed. He looked to his right on the off ramp and noticed a small car laying upside down on the ramp. The car had obviously just been in a wreck and had flipped over with very serious damage. He pulled to the right into a construction area and got out. He saw another guy running toward the car. He jumped over the construction barrier onto the off ramp. He saw the other man at the car down the ramp. When that guy got to the car he looked in Robb's direction and waived at him frantically. Robb ran down the ramp to the car. The guy was freaking out and said there is a girl in the car. He had managed to get the door open.Robb knelt down next to the door and looked in. Shattered glass everywhere, the girl was hanging upside down in the car. She was alert but distraught. She kept repeating "please get me out of here. I cant get my seat belt off." Robb asked if she thought she was hurt and she said no. She was moving trying to reach her seatbelt but couldnt get it. He assured her she would be alright. By then several other people had arrived. Fickman told one of them to call 911. He then asked another one of the men to try to open the other door so they could get to her seat belt. He tried but it would not open.Robb told her to stay calm and he moved a mat over some of the broken glass. He then slid on his back under her suspended body. He was able to get past her and reach her seat belt which he undid. He held his arms up to keep her from falling. As he released her she fell onto his arms. He then told the men outside the car to help him get her out as it was very cramped. With a little maneuvering they were able to get her out. He gathered her purse, wallet and they moved her away from the vehicle. He waited for paramedics and the County to show up. She was in obvious shock. They got her to drink some water. When the paramedics showed up she was reluctant to go with them. Robb told her she should go just to make sure she was ok. When he left the paramedics were taking her away. It appeared the seatbelt and the good Lord saved her life. Before she left her boyfriend arrived. He was appreciative. Robb then admonished him that the next time he heard someone bad mouthing lawyers, he should tell them it was a lawyer that got his girlfriend out of her wreck.

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 Posted on July 07, 2009 in Uncategorized

Lawyers:

There are some who will tell you, "the disciplinary rules say X, so ethically you have no choice." That our lawyerly duties trump all others is a fiction thoughtlessly accepted by most lawyers and eagerly accepted by others who want to avoid the consequences of their actions. They are mistaken for three reasons.

First, you always can choose (from your own frame of reference, and presuming that you have enough awareness to question whether you have a choice and are physically able) to violate any law. Follow the law and avoid its penalty, or violate it and pay the price.Second, many disciplinary rules are not ethical rules at all. Ethics are principles, and as such don't change when you cross borders. The DRs, by contrast, vary from state to state-even, for example, in their definition of privileged client information: in Texas anything I learn from any source in the course of representing a client in a criminal case is privileged. I can't, according to the disciplinary rules, reveal it for the client's benefit without the client's permission. In most states (and in civil cases in Texas) what the lawyer learns in the course of representation from anyone but the client is confidential but unprivileged, and can be revealed without the client's explicit permission. (Are lawyers everywhere else "unethical" for following their rules instead of Texas's?)

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