Underdog Blog – Fairfax Criminal Defense Lawyer | Virginia DUI Attorney
Fairfax Criminal Lawyer / Virginia DUI Attorney- Highly-Rated
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Obtaining a reckless driving plea in the middle of a drunk driving trial
When a lawyer fully prepares a case to go to trial, it is more likely to settle than when a lawyer prepares the case to settle. I prepare every case to go to trial, and take many of them to trial. The preparation increases my victories,...
The three basics of effective trial advocacy: Knowledge/intelligence, skill/experience and passion/conviction
The three basics of effective trial advocacy, and persuasion beyond the law, are knowledge/intelligence/preparation, skill/experience, and passion/conviction. They all need to be synthesized into a harmonious whole. Passion, conviction, and persuasion are major hallmarks of the Trial Lawyers College, which I attended for four weeks in August...
Virginia will mandate the ignition interlock for all DWI convictions
Another reason to fight DWI cases tooth and nail In The Forty Year Old Virgin, one of the hero’s drunk prospects asks him to blow into a tube into her car, and away they recklessly go. He did not at the time realize that he...
Jon Katz interviews live today on BBC TV and BBC radio
BBC interviewed me today 1:30pm EDT at its Washington, D.C., television studio, for TV Channel 1’s South East Today, about Briton Christopher Tappin’s extradition and armaments prosecution, now that he is scheduled to be taken soon to the United States by extradition order. BBC Radio Kent interviews...
Don’t hold your breath to see any expansion of Miranda
Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966), must be kept sacrosanct, so that law enforcement will properly advise suspects in custody of their right to remain silent, and honor that right, so that the Fifth Amendment has real meaning in assuring that one not be...
Winning a DWI trial after keeping out the breath test result
If given a choice between having my client’s drunk driving case prosecuted in Virginia or Maryland, ordinarily I would choose Maryland. In the Maryland counties where I practice most often, including Montgomery, Prince George’s, and Howard, ordinarily, absent such unusual circumstances as a bad accident...
Winning a DWI trial by suppressing the arrest
Sometimes criminal defendants win their cases by getting the evidence suppressed. That is how I won a recent DWI case. Where I practice, judges, not juries, decide evidentiary issues over suppressing stops, searches, seizures, arrests and statements to the police, although juries may be instructed...
Winning a DWI on a 0.09 BAC result
Recently I met with a potential client charged with drunk driving. When I was addressing some of his case defenses with him, he replied: “I am guilty, so why should I be pleading not guilty?” Why, indeed. Because the prosecution alone has the burden of...
4th Cir.: Only the four corners of the court record may be used to make a crime of moral turpitude determination for immigration purposes
When a criminal defense lawyer consults with a qualified immigration lawyer conversant with adverse immigration consequences from criminal convictions, expect to hear the immigration lawyers’ analysis include risks from crimes of moral turpitude and aggravated felonies. Praised be the majority on the Fourth Circuit panel...
Fourth Circuit affirms suppression of fruits of the poisonous tree
Prosecutors often will try to overcome bad searches by claiming such factors as inevitable discovery, and intervening events that cure any taint. Praised be the Fourth Circuit recently, 2-1, for not buying the prosecutor’s arguments over an unconstitutional stop of a car, without which the cops would...
