Underdog Blog – Fairfax Criminal Defense Lawyer | Virginia DUI Attorney

I knew a trial judge in my home state of Connecticut starting before he became a judge, and referred to him a few times to a family member as the “hanging judge”, because I was not fond to learn that he apparently was okay with the...

A vehicle collides so hard into the one in front of it that the struck vehicle suffers substantial damage, and the struck vehicle then collides into the next car ahead. Police arrive to find my client with bloodshot and watery eyes, all upset about a...

Criminal defense is a wild ride. One day, I am sitting on top of the world with a big court victory, the next day I am appearing before a very difficult judge to say the least, and the next day I am talking to a...

For better or worse, negotiations are an essential part of criminal and civil litigation, running from seeking dismissals of cases, to each party’s giving up part of the loaf. Criminal negotiations usually are not games of chicken, unless the police or prosecutors have done underhanded...

Most of my criminal defense clients manage their daily lives rather well in the face of their pending court cases. Some get consumed by their cases from time to time, and sometimes share that with me. I have thought of criminal defense lawyers being akin...

Jury acquittals are among the most exhilarating part of criminal defense practice. However, a criminal defense lawyer disserves his or her client by not seeing whether the case can settle rather than going to trial. When I say settle, I do not automatically mean seeking a...

When one sees and experiences all the rights that get trampled on in court, and by so many cops and prosecutors, the temptation is repeatedly present to get angry at such situations, and to call the rights violators fascists, tyrants, and low lifes at best. Anger, however,...

With all the uphill battles that so many criminal defendants so often face, they and their lawyers may often feel that everything is about us (the defense) versus them (everyone else). A healthy dose of skepticism is in order in approaching cops, prosecutors, and judges....

Prosecutor: “Jon, you are a private practice lawyer who is willing to waste time.” Translation: “You put time into defending your clients without concern whether doing so will not be financially profitable to you.” One of the more upstanding local prosecutors recently said that to me before court...

A colleague who has known many local judges since childhood and through the old boy/girl network recently told me that half the judges he knows in a particular county do the work out of a sense of public service, with numerous of the remainder dreading...