Underdog Blog – Fairfax Criminal Defense Lawyer | Virginia DUI Attorney

Soft is not weak when applied in terms of active relaxation. Collapsed is weak. Brittle is weak. Stiff is weak. Softness enables listening and winning; loudness deafens; hardness makes brittle and weak. Softness puts opponents and others more at ease — and open to the...

A drug dog’s positive alert, by itself, does not justify searching a car’s passengers, where the police have no particularized suspicion to believe that the passenger possesses drugs or is acting criminally together with the others in the car. Whtehead v. Virginia, 278 Va. 300,...

Praised be my clients — amounting to the vast majority of them — who do not rush to plead guilty in an effort to avoid worse sentencing exposure in the event of a trial loss, than from pleading guilty. By the time my clients and...

On April 17, 2013, the Supreme Court issued a splintered opinion in which a 5-4 majority ruled that nonconsensual blood draws ordinarily require a search warrant in driving while intoxicated investigations and arrests. Missouri v. McNeely, ___ U.S. ___ (April 17, 2013). McNeely says that...

By Jon Katz, a criminal defense lawyer and DWI/ DUI/ Drunk Driving lawyer advocating in Fairfax County, Virginia, and beyond for the best possible results for his clients. Earlier this week, Briton Sean Jude Kelly’s allegedly drunken and “let’s fight” behavior on a plane returning...

What is it like for a doctor handling a life-or-death emergency when the patients’ relatives are pleading, even screaming "Doctor, do something!" "Doctor, what is my relative’s situation?" "Doctor, why are you not doing a better job?" As a criminal defense lawyer, I also face...

A recent Virginia appellate opinion reminds us what we already know: Being human, judges can make serious mistakes. Parties’ lawyers, must be at the ready to prevent and remedy those mistakes. Latasha Gordon was convicted at trial for two counts of unlawful wounding (each count...

A great trial law teacher warned criminal defense lawyers about throwing feces at an opposing witness during cross examination, lest the witness act like a cooling fan that shoots back the feces all over the lawyer’s face and clothes. Too many prosecutors cloak police with...

I went from public school to college, to a Wall Street-based bank for a year, to law school, to a law firm, to the Maryland public defender’s office, to another law firm, to my own duo law firm, to my current solo law firm. Too...

I have repeatedly underlined why police lying is all too common. Lying is bad enough among humans in any time or place. When a police officer lies to the detriment of a criminal defendant’s liberty, that is particularly reprehensible. For every police officer caught lying,...