Underdog Blog – Fairfax Criminal Defense Lawyer | Virginia DUI Attorney

The videotaped and other reported incidents of wrongful killings and other misconduct by police keep pouring in. With this month’s police killings of Walter Scott (shot in the back) and Eric Harris (shot by a part-time cop claiming he meant only to tase Harris), we...

With no prior convictions, on a federal court guilty plea to one count of child pornography, Steven Helton received a five year prison term and lifetime probation. U.S. v. Helton, ___ F.3d ___ (April 2, 2015). Helton could have fared much worse at trial, based...

This year, the Voice of America and a freelance journalist with a major magazine interviewed me about the Boston marathon bombing trial against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, humanizing criminal defendants to jurors, and Tsarnaev’s lawyer and my hero Judy Clarke. The Voice of America interview was videotaped...

As an Arlington Criminal Lawyer I am not fond of incarceration, I previously thought that that Arlington County, Virginia, jail a few miles up the road from me was one of the nicer jails to be jailed at EXCEPT for being able to see much...

Two weeks ago, I returned for my somewhat annual speaking engagement with George Washington University’s graduate Human Sexuality class. The class primarily is composed of students who want to be psychological counselors. Why are humans the only animals who need psychological counselors, self help books,...

In Virginia, it is a Catch-22 for a driving while intoxicated suspect to take or refuse the breath or blood test. If a DWI arrestee has enough alcohol in his or her blood, a breath or blood test will help the prosecution prove its case. If the DWI arrestee...

Many of my clients are not Christian, nor am I. Decades ago, the United States Supreme Court ruled against prayer in public schools as violating the First Amendment. Before then, such clearly Christian prayers as the Lord’s Prayer were commonplace to start the day in...

Plenty of people expend enormous energy avoiding toxic people, toxic situations and air pollution. However, even when we least expect it, we will have many trying times involving physical and even mental health issues, relationships with others, and generally dealing with the world around us....

Each adversary and judge are potential hurdles and allies. This concept was underlined when an opposing civil lawyer for whom I was not initially fond at the beginning eighteen years ago, ended up showing his better side when we jointly collaborated in representing a mutual...

The District of Columbia and Maryland have decriminalized marijuana. The two jurisdictions have also moved forward in their own peculiar ways in giving limited protection to medical marijuana use. Neighboring Virginia lags far behind. For marijuana consumers working in and near Washington, D.C., Virginia’s disadvantageous...