Underdog Blog – Fairfax Criminal Defense Lawyer | Virginia DUI Attorney

The Court of Appeals is Virginia’s intermediate appellate court. Here is an overview of some recent key criminal decisions from the Virginia Court of Appeals: – Whither Boykin in District Court? This month, Virginia’s Court of Appeals confirmed — as required by the Supreme Court in...

United States courts generally treat one’s home as the closest thing to one’s castle, by making limited exceptions for warrantless home searches. (On the other hand, search warrants ordinarily are too easy for police officers to obtain, with the honesty of warrant applications generally taken by...

The only way to know if a defendant will win is to go to trial. This month yielded another example of why it is critical to go to trial when the outcome from an innocent plea is not likely to be any worse than the...

Beware having the accused testify in Virginia state court. When the accused testifies there, the prosecutor has appellate authority enabling the trial judge to permit cross examination of the defendant beyond the scope of direct examination. The case is Drumgoole v. Commonwealth, 26 Va. App....

Convictions for marijuana and other drugs should not be permitted to cut off student financial aid. (Image from public domain.) Criminal defendants need to consider not only the direct consequences of a criminal conviction (e.g., the potential of incarceration, fines, probation, and higher sentences for...

A drug possession conviction requires probable cause to seize the alleged drugs; proof that the seized item constitutes illegal drugs; and proof beyond a reasonable doubt of knowledge, dominion and control over the alleged drugs. When I started doing criminal defense over fifteen years ago,...

A criminal defense lawyer’s criminal defense lawyer, showing lawyers the powerful path to humanizing our clients, through storytelling, kindness to all, summoning our inner magic, and a reminder that “reality is no obstacle.” When I started practicing criminal defense over fifteen years ago, a repeated theme...

An angry litigator is a weakened litigator, just as an angry competitor is a weakened competitor. Not many people would get angry at the tiger making the attack. However, the main reason that people get angry at other people’s viciousness is feeling disappointed, at the...

Here is a recent example of the necessity for fully preparing well in advance for trial, for being fearless about proceeding to trial, and for using time as a commodity in negotiations. This approach is needed for all trials, both large and smaller; the following example...

At a bench trial several years ago, a judge emphatically confirmed how much reliance he puts on witnesses who emphatically and — seemingly credibly — state “that’s the one” who committed the crime. Such an assertion flies in the face of the Supreme Court’s logical...