Underdog Blog – Fairfax Criminal Defense Lawyer | Virginia DUI Attorney

Police are from the same cloth as all court witnesses, drawn from the general population that ranges from the angelic to the amoral to the sinister. Neither the law nor good sense merits cloaking police with any more presumption of believability nor honesty, than any other...

Virginia 251 dispositions for drug and marijuana possession are not necessarily the panacea that numerous police, prosecutor and judges elevate them to be. Talk is abuzz about a July 1, 2017, Virginia law change that no longer requires a judge to suspend one's driving privileges for...

The temptations to hit and run/ leave the scene of a car collision can be many, including hitting a parked car when no witnesses seem to be present, not wanting to be discovered having committed possible DWI, driving without a valid and license, being in...

Cringe-worthy is each time that a client tells me s/he revealed his or her cellphone ownership or password to the cops. The same goes for every time that clients tell me they admitted ownership or possession of bags, rooms, or other material or places where...

The Fourth of July brings remembrance of war and independence and more; festivities; and police trolling to make arrests for DWI and other alleged crimes, like bear feasting on salmon swimming upstream. You risk much to speak with police and to consent to searches.

Judges and jurors must know that police are not immune from lying. Consider Michael Picard's plight. State trooper(s) from my natal state of Connecticut in September 2015 told Picard he was unlawfully filming them. Picard insisted he had the legal right to film them while...

On June 23, 2017, the Supreme Court expanded upon Padilla, by confirming that it is ineffective assistance of counsel under the Sixth Amendment for a criminal lawyer to misadvise his or her client that a particular conviction or sentence will not carry adverse immigration consequences. Jae...

When a homicide defendant knows s/he will be found to have caused the decedent's death, the defendant often finds himself or herself pursuing a self defense claim, or else a claim of a lesser level of culpability than first degree murder (for instance manslaughter or...

A conviction for soliciting a minor for sexual activity can bring harsh sentencing. Va, Code § 18.2-374.3.  In an unpublished 2-1 opinion, Virginia's Court of Appeals on May 30, 2017, reversed Mark Murgia's conviction under said statute, because as disgusting as his words were to a...

People need to be careful of their words, lest they end up eating those words. Randell Linlaw learned that the hard way. Kinlaw entered a tanning salon, and passed the employee a note proclaiming  words along the lines of "I have a gun. I don’t want to...