Underdog Blog – Fairfax Criminal Defense Lawyer | Virginia DUI Attorney

An interesting mating dance is often done between criminal defendants and the lawyers they are considering hiring. They want to know a lawyer’s fee, the lawyer’s quality, and the lawyer’s devotion to them and their case if hired. Some feel pressure (for instance to visit...

Judy Clarke stands behind the late Wyoming Chief Justice Bob Rose (wearing an eyepatch). I am standing here, in pre-gray wavy hair, two men to the left of Bob Rose. (1995, Thunderhead Ranch, Dubois, Wyoming.) When I transitioned from a Washington, D.C., 25-lawyer corporate law...

How many doctors and lawyers do you know who keep their patients and clients at arm’s length? I see it all the time. Does it come from habit, training, observation of colleagues, assumptions, wrong analysis, or a combination of some or all of them. For me...

Support our troops is a common refrain —- urging such support regardless of one’s views of the military’s policies and actions — particularly when soldiers are at war. However, eighteen to twenty year olds are treated as responsble enough to carry and shoot weapons in...

A few times in my high school trigonometry class, I would sit down with my teacher during her office hours to assure that I was understanding one or the other challenging concept. Our meetings were short, because she would distill our discussions to such simplicity...

When a person lights a fire in a dry-wood forest, s/he will not be able to stop the firestorm that follows, burning down multiple trees, spreading far and wide, polluting the air and waterways, and killing and maiming animals and destroying their habitats. Government is...

How much compassion should I show for someone directing a meat cleaver at the throat of me or my client? Even with my over two decades of experience defending over three thousand criminal defendants, I still witness new ways that some opposing prosecutors and witnesses...

Behind the orderly-looking appearance of courtrooms are repeated instances of no-holds-barred trial battle, and holding cells attached to each courtroom or down the hll. The fights can get expensive in terms of time, attorney fees, frustration and sweat expended. Criminal defense is battle and often...

Why do some judges act more civil to some lawyers and litigants than to others, and act downright hostile to others? The short answer is that it is a combination about what is going on with the judge, the lawyer, the litigant, and outside circumstances. In...

Recently, Kimberly Atkins at LegalNews.com interviewed me on the Prado Navarette v. California Supreme Court decision eroding the Fourth Amendment by giving too much credence to 911 callers. The reporter contacted me after reading my blog entry on the case. Here is the article that...