When it comes to advocacy, the British have us beat. You would think that since we patterned our laws after the common law of England, that we would adopt everything that is good about their system. Unfortunately, the American judicial system does not permit advocates to serve both as prosecution and defense counsel (back and [...]
Many people believe that all they have to do is walk into a criminal defense lawyer's office and say "you're hired". It is not quite as simple as that. There are three factors that go into the attorney/client relationship. First, the client must indeed be comfortable with a lawyer. After all, it is the lawyer who [...]
I became a board certified criminal trial lawyer the second year it was offered (1988). I have remained board certified ever since. However, I am becoming more and more disillusioned with the value of board certification. Lawyers are now allowed to say and advertise that they are “experts” even though they are not board-certified. If [...]
The late Washington DC lawyer Edward Bennett Williams was once quoted as saying "No physician worthy of the name would turn away a patient because he suffers from a loathsome or incurable disease. No clergyman would turn away a sinner because his sins are too heinous or his soul is to black. Only the lawyer [...]
I am not a communist. I have been raised to believe that communism is not a form of government that I wish to live under. Maybe it was because of indoctrination. I am not sure. I have always believed that the harder you work, the more you will prosper. My father had an 8th grade [...]
We see TV images of thousands of people coming from Central America toward the United States border. They all have one thing in common. They want the freedom and opportunity that is present in this country that is not present in their country. They want to work, feed their family, get an education and have [...]
It seems like every day the American public is bombarded with the acrimonious dealings between the Republicans and Democrats in our government. If one side wants something, the other does not. If something positive is proposed, the other side shoots it down. Neither side want the other side to succeed. The ultimate result, of course, is that [...]
I have heard it said that trials are a search for the truth. Unfortunately, that could not be further from the actual truth. What I mean is that it is the perception of truth that the jury comes to accept that counts. The ultimate, or God's truth, takes a backseat to advocacy. For example, a [...]
There will be no winners in the confirmation process of Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Americans were shown the true colors of our two-party system miserably at work. Mudslinging is too kind of a term to use in describing "the search for the truth." It seems that the "agenda" of the parties takes precedence over fairness, civility and downright professional conduct. Senators were seen trying their best to get their fifteen minutes of fame before a national audience in the hopes that [...]
In Birchfield v. North Dakota, 136 S. Ct. 2160 (2016) the United States Supreme Court ruled that warrants were necessary to extract blood from a motorist involved in DUI crash cases where someone was injured. Although some exceptions exist, this changed the way police obtained blood to determine alcohol content. However, more recently, Florida’s [...]
