Defending People

the tao of criminal-defense trial lawyering

Ghost-Town Marketing Morons: Linxmonster

| January 31, 2009

Three virtually-identical emails from “Anthony Evans” and “Randy Miller” at linxmonster.com: I was looking at websites under the keyword dui attorney [City] Texas and came across your site . . . . I see that you’re ranked # [X] in Google. I’m not sure if you’re aware of why you’re ranked this low but more [...]

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Prosecutors Help People, But How Often?

| January 31, 2009

Baby criminal-defense lawyer Murray Newman writes: The thing I loved the most about being a prosecutor was helping victims of crime. There was a profound feeling of doing something important when meeting with the victim’s family on a murder case, or the surviving members of an aggravated sexual assault, robbery, or assault and telling them [...]

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Criminal Liability Under the CPSIA

| January 30, 2009

Following Walter Olson’s (Overlawyered) posts about the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, I thought I’d check out the criminal penalties for violation of the CPSIA. Contrast this: Any person who knowingly and willfully violates section 2068 of this title after having received notice of noncompliance from the Commission shall be fined not more [...]

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Ex-Judge Hanger

| January 30, 2009

A couple of the Harris County felony court judges deselected by the voters in November have, as I noted before, hung out their shingles as would-be criminal-defense lawyers. They will, no doubt, advertise their ex-judgeness to the potential clients as a positive. And judicial experience could well be a positive in some cases. One of [...]

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Transcript of CharonQC’s John Kane Interview

| January 30, 2009

English law blogger CharonQC interviewed U.S. Senior District Court Judge John Kane of Colorado a couple of days ago. Judge Kane had some interesting things to say about the war on drugs (as well as about civil procedure); I linked to the interview here. With the permission of CharonQC, I’ve commissioned a transcript of the [...]

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Williamson County Discovery

| January 30, 2009

In response to this post, in which I talked about Williamson County, Texas’s criminal discovery policy, WilCo DA John Bradley emailed me: In Williamson County, a defense lawyer receives full and complete discovery, including access to offense reports, before any trial. Mr. Hampton’s commentary is not accurate. Our discovery is more limited if there is [...]

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More for Our Colleagues Across the Pond

| January 29, 2009

Continuing my discussion with “Interested Counsel” about the U.S. criminal justice system. He asks: Another emotive issue over there appears to be disclosure. I had assumed this was similar to our own debate over when, in proceedings, full disclosure should take place. I infer from your (very good) podcast with the self-styled Charon QC that [...]

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Entitled Asshat of the Day

| January 29, 2009

From Above the Law: A promising Harvard Law School standout told cops during a bizarre drunken tirade that he would “lie and cheat” to ruin them if — as a future attorney — he ever calls them to a witness stand, police said. The 3L, an unpaid intern for prosecutors in Dorchester County District courts, [...]

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Zombies in Area! Run!

| January 29, 2009

(Can you see the above video? Please let me know in comments.) Austin officials aren’t taking the spoof lightly, noting it is a criminal act. “The sign’s content was humorous, but the act of changing it wasn’t,” Hartley said. Austin police are investigating the situation, and the vandals could face a Class C misdemeanor charge [...]

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Pignatelli Revisited

| January 29, 2009

If, like Francis M. Pignatelli, you moved from Ohio under a cloud and started representing people in Colorado, you wouldn’t even have to read the rules in their entirety to find it; it’s right there in Rule 1.2(a) of the Colorado Rules of Professional Conduct: In a criminal case, the lawyer shall abide by the [...]

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