Underdog Blog – Fairfax Criminal Defense Lawyer | Virginia DUI Attorney
Fairfax Criminal Lawyer / Virginia DUI Attorney- Highly-Rated
Pursuing Your Best Defense Since 1991
Kindness in judges and all others is powerful, not weak
Defending results for his Kindness in judges and all others is powerful, not weak. Those who do the opposite are either fearful of their weaknesses or else ill-taught. Praised be the judge who not long ago pondered why many in the audience stood upon his...
Federal spending bill bars Justice Department’s trying to prevent states from implementing medical marijuana laws
The recently-passed federal spending bill bars the United States Justice Department from trying to prevent states from implementing medical marijuana laws. However, this does not automatically mean that the Justice Department will not continue to raid and prosecute non-governmental entities that grow and sell marijuana ostensibly for...
Supreme Court effectively invites police to be rusty on the law
December 15, 2014, was not a proud day for the United States Supreme Court, when it decided 8-1 that a traffic stop is not invalidated when based on a police officer’s reasonably mistaken reading of the law. Nicholas Heien was driving with a broken brake light. That was...
Beware unreliable handheld breath tests for marijuana impairment
Law enforcement and tough-on-crime politicians rely too heavily on testing for alcohol to determine whether one has violated the drinking and driving laws, rather than to return to the sensible days when breath and blood testing (with breath testing already being highly flawed) was but...
What would a criminal defense lawyer tell a judge if immunized from fallout?
Judicial action can have profound impact on criminal defendants and others. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I am blessed to know some of the best and most courageous criminal defense attorneys. They include Ernie Lewis, who is a past chief public defender lawyer in Kentucky...
Fighting the prosecutor’s “experts” on intent to distribute drugs
Where I practice law, the potential incarceration penalties and collateral stigma are stiffer for a conviction of possession with intent to distribute illegal drugs ("PWID"), versus for a drug possession conviction, with the PWID penalties being as stiff as for actual drug distribution. Often, prosecutors...
Getting by with a little help from my friends, in the criminal defense practice
From at least high school, I dreamed of one day being my own boss. In fact, I had already reached that dream at the age of eleven, when I performed my first of many paid magic shows for children’s birthday parties, disappearing milk from a...
The Supreme Court says it may be okay for police to go to your backdoor to ask questions on a hunch
"One’s home is one’s castle," it is oft repeated. If that is so, then why has the United States Supreme Court this week unanimously said it might be okay for police may come to our backyard, knock on the rear door, and scare the crap out...
Repeatedly calling 911 is not a criminal crank call when intent to annoy or harass is absent
In Virginia, repeatedly calling 911 is not a criminal crank call when intent to annoy or harass is absent. Fountain v. Virginia, ___ Va. App. __ (Nov. 4, 2014). Police stopped Ms. Fountain for allegedly weaving in and out of her lane of car travel....
Parties and their families should not talk to jurors
Lawyers should warn their clients, and their clients’ relatives, friends and employees against talking to the jurors in the clients’ case. That was highlighted this week when Virginia’s Court of Appeal okayed a trial judge’s dismissal of a murder trial juror, after the juror informed...