Defending People

the tao of criminal-defense trial lawyering

The New Kids on the Blawck

| April 21, 2010

One of the highlights of the year, in my itinerant childhood overseas, was the end of summer, when the new kids arrived—in high school at AES in New Delhi, maybe 20% of the 150 students were new each year. It was an exciting time, full of possibility for new friends, and it never disappointed. I [...]

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Lawyers For All

| February 14, 2010

I first saw the idea raised by John Kindley in this comment at Simple Justice: free criminal-defense lawyers for everyone, not just the indigent. I replied there that society should be willing to bear the full cost of prosecuting accused law-breakers, including the cost of due process. Norm Pattis came up with the same idea: [...]

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Lawyer David DeCosta Cleared

| February 9, 2010

David DeCosta was set up, to begin with: set up by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office and the Phoenix Police Department, and almost certainly factually innocent. Yesterday the State of Arizona, represented by the Pinal County Attorney’s Office (to avoid the appearance of conflict of interest—are you listening, Pat Lykos?) moved to dismiss the case [...]

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Michael Sokolow’s Good Call

| January 6, 2010

Back in November, Kent Schaffer must have been feeling pretty good. Schaffer, one of Houston’s top criminal-defense lawyers, had been appointed by Judge David Hittner to, along with the Public Defender, represent R. Allen Stanford in the juiciest criminal case in town. When Schaffer took the case it was at the CJA’s $110-an-hour rate, considerably [...]

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“I’ve Handled Lots of These Cases”

| December 7, 2009

It’s always been easy for a lawyer to claim, “I’ve handled lots of these cases,” to try to get hired by a client. Now, thanks to District Clerk Loren Jackson, who has brought the courthouse into the late 20th century, if not the 21st, it’s easy for a client, at least in Harris County, to [...]

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How to Choose a (Cheaper) Criminal Defense Lawyer

| December 7, 2009

In response to my post on how to choose a criminal-defense lawyer, a couple of people asked for a similar guide for the clients who can’t afford to hire the kind of lawyer I would hire if I were in trouble. For example, “What I wish you had written is how to select a lawyer [...]

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Tyler Flood Postscript

| November 10, 2009

Houston DWI lawyer Tyler Flood made an irresistible target of  himself by running his mouth to the Houston Press, and I was unable to resist. Whoever writes blog posts under his name at his blog managed (inadvertently, I hope) to string Christmas lights around the target by comparing him to Andy Nolen and accusing me [...]

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New Blog on the Blogroll

| November 7, 2009

Law and Baseball, by criminal-defense lawyer Johnny Gardner, from Bobby Frederick’s stomping grounds of Horry County, South Carolina.

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Lessons in Media Relations and Blogging, from Tyler Flood [Updated, and Again]

| November 7, 2009

Tyler Flood (one of the smartest lawyers Tyler Flood has ever met!) says of his recent debacle in the Houston Press: During the course of this process I praised so many of my colleagues and even told Mike who to talk to, including Jed [Silverman], Gary [Trichter], Troy [McKinney], [Mark] Thiessen, Murph [Doug Murphy], Jim [...]

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How to Choose a Criminal Defense Lawyer

| November 6, 2009

I’ve been asked to write about how to choose a criminal-defense lawyer. Disclaimer: What I write here, I write not with the intention of making myself more presentable to clients, but only of telling the truth, revealing a bit of myself, and maybe entertaining or educating. Some of my posts have probably scared off potential [...]

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