Underdog Blog – Fairfax Criminal Defense Lawyer | Virginia DUI Attorney

When I started practicing criminal defense, I spoke with a very experienced criminal defense lawyer who told me that he had never prosecuted, but expected he would love it if he had such a job; this was a variation on a theme of some former...

Every criminal defense lawyer should attend the National Criminal Defense College’s Trial Practice Institute, known in shorthand as Macon for the program’s location. At least when I attended in 1994, competition for each Macon slot was very high among state-level public defender lawyers. The program sough diversity...

On a trial lawyers’ listserv recently, a member passed on a law student’s request for publications for learning effective cross examination in criminal cases. While nothing replaces learning cross examination through live training and in the courtroom, some high quality publications do exist, including Larry Pozner’s...

Numerous potential criminal clients’ first words to me include: “This is my first time seeking a lawyer. I’m not sure what I am supposed to discuss,” as if there exists some generic script or information checklist suitable for every lawyer and client and every situation....

Do jurors want to be tortured for hours by droning lawyers, witnesses and judges, interspersed with waiting for bench conferences with silence that might be even more excruciating? Or, do they want to be transported into the middle of an interesting story, experiencing the action with...

Susan Smith apparently would not have been convicted had she not spoken to the police. Mark Castillo smoothed prosecutors’ path towards a murder conviction — unless he successfully argues insanity — by calling the police this past weekend to tell them he had killed his three...