Underdog Blog – Fairfax Criminal Defense Lawyer | Virginia DUI Attorney

Complete disclosure by Virginia assistant commonwealth attorneys -- and all prosecutors -- is essential under federal Supreme Court jurisprudence. The Supreme Court in 2025 made that clear in the starkest terms. Glossip v. Oklahoma, ___ U.S. ___, 2025 WL 594736 (2025). Glossip was issued shortly after a...

Pretextual inventory searches of police-stopped automobiles -- where the real police motive is to conduct an unlawful search -- are inevitably going to take place in this climate where appellate court caselaw allows police to stop a motor vehicle for a moving violation, where the...

Public masturbation (PM) is a jailable offense in Virginia.  As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that the number of possible counts for that crime is totaled from the defendant's alleged actions, and not his or her number of victims. Samuel Harris was caught red...

Cocaine convictions and all other convictions often come about only because the suspect / Virginia criminal defendant did not assert their Constitutional right to silence under the Fifth Amendment. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I cheer when defendants assert that right, and often bury my...

Virginia appeals (VApp) to Circuit Court mean that your District Court sentence places no cap on your Circuit Court sentence, if convicted your second time around. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that with a VApp to Circuit Court, the entire proceedings are de...

Crimmigration warning (the first term means practicing criminal defense while helping to reduce adverse immigration consequences): If you are not a United States citizen, you may be subjected to the Trump administration's expanded and aggressive actions to detain and deport a large population of non-citizens,...

A probation conviction (PC) can happen with a dismissed prosecution, if a new criminal law violation is still proven. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I was disappointed to see a Virginia Court of Appeals opinion (thankfully unpublished, so not binding on any court, but which...

Firearm drug defense goes against two Virginia statutory monstrosities. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer I am constantly working to avoid the harsh collateral consequences and sentences that can follow from a drug conviction, a firearm / handgun / pistol / weapon conviction, or from a...

Pouncing when the deal is right is an important part of fighting Virginia prosecutions. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer I fully prepare my clients' cases to proceed to trial, thereby pursuing my clients' best defense, keeping in the defendant's hands the full control over approving...

Disarming allegedly dangerous people is the keyphrase for commonwealth legislators and Virginia prosecutors to use in claiming that a law or prosecution prohibiting or penalizing firearm possession or use passes Constitutional muster with the Second Amendment. That is the takeaway from the Virginia Court of...