Posted on November 08, 2012 in Uncategorized

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, the parties have to explore whether that has influenced their judgment. Sometimes press coverage in one county is so pervasive that the entire trial has to be moved to another county. Once jurors are sworn, the judge admonishes them not to read or watch press coverage about the case they are trying.

So it's mind-boggling that the official website of the District of Columbia court system leads off with a scrolling list of links to news stories about cases in the D.C. courts. Somebody thought this was a good idea, but I doubt that it was a judge or a clerk or anyone else with a stake in the fair and efficient administration of justice.

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 Posted on November 07, 2012 in Uncategorized

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 near-sweep in 2008 because it ended fourteen years of Harris County Republican Party hegemony. I'm relieved that the results were more balanced this time around because we're not yet seeing the beginning of Harris County Democratic Party hegemony. (A pox on both their hegemonies.)

The three races in which Democrats hung on were the 174th, in which Ruben Guerrero beat Robert Summerlin; the 178th, in which David Mendoza beat Roger Bridgwater; and the 339th, in which Maria Jackson beat Brad Hart.

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 Posted on October 17, 2012 in Uncategorized

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.

The answer is found starting in Federal Rule of Evidence 806:

When a hearsay statement - or a statement described in Rule 801(d)(2)(C), (D), or (E) - has been admitted in evidence, the declarant's credibility may be attacked, and then supported, by any evidence that would be admissible for those purposes if the declarant had testified as a witness. The court may admit evidence of the declarant's inconsistent statement or conduct, regardless of when it occurred or whether the declarant had an opportunity to explain or deny it. If the party against whom the statement was admitted calls the declarant as a witness, the party may examine the declarant on the statement as if on cross-examination.

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 Posted on October 16, 2012 in Uncategorized

Highlights of audience comments:

• "The 'Interesting Legal Questions' only served to confuse me." (There's a fine line between interesting and confusing; I cross it occasionally.)

• "Presentation was well done. What a shame that his 'biased liberalism' had to be so blatant it detracted from an otherwise good discussion." (You stand up and fight for the right of devout "judge not" Christians to serve on juries, and they call you a biased liberal.)

• "Speaker has unique and interesting style kind of like Led Zeppelin." (I am not entirely sure what that means. It's been a long time since I rock and rolled.)

Here's the video, if you're interested.

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 Posted on October 16, 2012 in Uncategorized

Here is a sample question from an exam I'm preparing to take on Texas criminal law. The question was provided by the authors of the exam:

In a jury trial the assistant district attorney calls the defense attorney to the stand to attempt to establish that the defendant visited the attorney at a certain time and location in order to demonstrate that the defendant was in town on the day of offense. The defense attorney:a. May refuse to answer the questions because of attorney client privilegeb. Cannot be forced to testifyc. Can be forced to testify, but he cannot be questioned about the physical characteristics of the client during that visit, e.g. complexion, demeanor, and dress.d. Can be forced to testify regarding physical characteristics of the client during that visit including the physical characteristics of the client such as complexion, demeanor, and dresse. a and b

This question invokes the "special rule of privilege" in Texas Rule of Evidence 503(b)(2):

In criminal cases, a client has a privilege to prevent the lawyer or lawyer's representative from disclosing any other fact which came to the knowledge of the lawyer or the lawyer's representative by reason of the attorney-client relationship.

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 Posted on October 16, 2012 in Uncategorized

Minnesota debt-collection mill Gurstel Chargo announces that it has hired two new associate attorneys in Scottsdale, Katherine Merolo and Benjamin S. Kulpers.

I wonder if Merolo and Kulpers know what they're in for:

I am a recent (now past) employee of this law firm. FDCPA violations happen on a regular basis, and I just wish that more people knew their rights, because suit could be legitimately brought daily against the practices of this firm.They do not train their employees, and supervision of violations is not a regular practice until suit is brought against them. They are happy as long as the money flows in. Illegal garnishments are regularly sought and granted, and they simply have them reversed when they find out their mistake, without any thought to the harm that comes in the meantime (they tend to favor the end of the month right before many people's rent comes due).There are good, honest attorneys that work there who are over-worked in a factory-style practice that does not allow them to properly supervise their practice, but the majority of the lawyers they hire are so young and inexperienced with no supervision or mentorship that they don't know what they're doing, and are under such considerable pressure from above to produce collectible judgments that they resort to questionable tactics with tacit approval from above, as is evidenced by the actions of the attorney in this case.Debt collection law firms like this one prey on the fact that people in general do not know what rights they have and are so in awe of legal papers served on them (and obviously in such dire financial straits) that they don't seek legal counsel. And while I admit that there are many plaintiffs in FDCPA cases who are simply working the system, the vast majority of honest-to-goodness violation cases do not get filed because people do not know the law. It's cases like this that raise public awareness and will hopefully give victims the knowledge to seek legal counsel when they are illegally harassed and intimidated by predatory debt-collection practices.

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 Posted on October 14, 2012 in Uncategorized

{Update 9 August 2013: The Colliers appear to have dismissed their case against Gurstel Chargo. The Stipulation to Dismiss says in part:

2. Gurstel Chargo performed no action that was in violation of the FDCPA;3. The telephone call referred to inthe Complaint and the central subject of this lawsuit was not made by Gurstel Chargo, any employee or affiliate of Gurstel Chargo, or anyone acting on behalf of Gurstel Chargo; and4. Plaintiffs agree to take nothing as a result of this action and agree that Gurstel Chargo neither paid anything nor promised anything to reach this agreement and dismissal.

}

From Minnesota law firm Gurstel Chargo's "what we do" page:

Our practice blend is uniquely designed to provide businesses with financial solutions and asset recovery. Our focus provides sophisticated and occasionally unlikely solutions to our clients fiscally driven matters.

From their meaning-free-mumbo-jumbo-laden "creditors rights" page:

We have developed sophisticated systems and instituted soft-touch collection practices that produce favorable results.

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 Posted on October 14, 2012 in Uncategorized

Last December a guy named Sam who works for a startup t-shirt company called ooshirts emailed to offer me three free t-shirts of my own design.

I put together a design with a molotov cocktail on the front and "No sense of humor when it comes to totalitarianism" on the back, along with the URL of this blog. They took about a week to come in, and were as well made and as well printed as any t-shirts I have. I gave one to Clint Davidson, one to Mike Stuart, and kept one for myself.

I intended to write a review of the shirts, but wanted to see how they held up first. I'm happy to report that both mine and Mike's have held up very well to almost a year's wear (Mike wore his to karate class last Sunday).

The price is right, too, even if Sam doesn't send you three for free-$27.16 for a single full-color-front-and-back t-shirt, $24.16 each for two or three, $21.66 each for four or five and progressively less per shirt for shirts bought in greater numbers. Prices are lower for fewer colors or sides, higher for heavier t-shirts, hoodies, sweatpants, and so forth. And free shipping on all. I don't know how prices compare to other options for volume orders, and you'll forgive me sounding a little advertisey in this post, but where else are you going to get a single high-quality t-shirt printed to your specs for less than the cost of your average concert T? (Hmmm...why buy the concert T when you can print your own?)

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 Posted on October 10, 2012 in Uncategorized

Houston DWI lawyer Paul B. Kennedy (The Defense Rests) complains about Carpet bagging [visiting] judges:

In the meantime, those who were tossed out of office by the public continue to preside over trials because their buddies and former colleagues keep using them as visiting judges. It's a process that needs to stop.

While it is true that the drafters of Texas's constitution wanted judges to be subject to the will of the people, I don't agree with Paul that judges whom voters have rejected should not be able to sit as visiting judges. The drafters of the Texas Constitution got it wrong. As a result of our partisan judicial elections, the voters hire many incompetents (see, for example, Ruben Guerrero) and fire many great judges (see, for example, Caprice Cosper).

The point, in my view, is that our sitting judges-the "buddies and former colleagues" that Kennedy refers to - continue allowing lousy former judges (whether retired or fired) to preside over trials.

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 Posted on October 08, 2012 in Uncategorized

"Lee" wrote to offer me a smoking deal:

DWITicket.com is a premium domain available for you to attract online customers. This URL defines an entire, high revenue, industry and you can own it – whether to enhance your own practice or build a directory of DWI attorneys.DWITicket.com is available for just $98,777

Iif you're the sort of lawyer who would think for even a moment of dropping a hundred large on a domain name, I've got a better proposition for you: buy DWI-ticket.com (DWI ticket? Are there still places where DWI is a mere ticket?) from me for a mere $49,000 and you can spend spend the balance on hookers and blow.

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