Virginia criminal lawyer on blunting prosecutors' continuance motions. Turning prosecution continuance motions into criminal defense victories needs to be pursued fully by the defense. In this second and final part of a two-part article (see part one here) I point out that a prosecution continuance...
Fairfax criminal lawyer on obtaining victories by any lawful and ethical means necessary. Drawing dismissals of prosecutions -- rather than suffering the granting of prosecution continuance motions -- is an art, as is so much of what is needed to obtain victory in court. As...
Fairfax DUI lawyer on focusing the parties on negotiations as a possible alternative to trial. Negotiating without distraction is the ideal approach to negotiating, always on target to "get to yes.". As a Virginia criminal lawyer, I know the importance of undistracted settlement talks. When a...
Fairfax criminal lawyer warns against lying in and out of court - Perjury convictions must be avoided. Perjury convictions are worse than suspended driving convictions. One would think that would be common sense. However, if their perjury convictions are correct, clearly Patricia Gerald and Tarsha...
Fairfax criminal lawyer celebrates SCOTUS's keeping some teeth in the Fourth Amendment. Privacy rights are critical to criminal defense, including the essential Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures and against warrantless searches that require search warrants only issued upon probable cause. As a...
Virginia criminal lawyer on winning through openness, embracing all, and eliminating negative words. Negative words are a downward spiral. We know that already, but negative words permeate daily dialogue, starting with car stereos blasting F-bombs and proceeding with referencing others as sex organs, and calling...
Fairfax criminal lawyer on the ongoing crimmigration minefield of criminal convictions for non-United States citizens. Moral turpitude convictions (also known as crimes involving moral turpitude ("CIMT")) and aggravated felonies present serious immigration risks for non-United States citizens. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I repeatedly deal...
Fairfax criminal lawyer on Virginia prosecutors' leeway to back out from plea deals. Trial readiness is critical for criminal defense lawyers. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that trial readiness is the only way to win, to negotiate from a position of strength, and...
Fairfax criminal lawyer on handling handgun violence and all violence. How do we stop murders if guns are not banned? I do not have a ready answer, but as a Fairfax criminal lawyer do have the below thoughts. Those who own guns should assure they...
Fairfax DUI lawyer obtains reckless driving result after prosecution witness calls in sick. Witness availability -- on the prosecution side -- always needs to be checked by the defense lawyer as part of advising a criminal or DUIhttps://katzjustice.com/trial-readiness-steers-negotiating/ defendant whether to proceed to trial and...
Virginia criminal lawyer warns against worsening the criminal justice system in addressing rampant gun violence. Stopping violence must not come at the price of worsening our already unacceptable criminal justice system that overcriminalizes, overarrests, overconvicts, overincarcerates, and oversupervises (through pretrial detention, and often excessive limitations...
Fairfax criminal lawyer on the Constitutional standing hurdles for challenging police searches, Search challenges in court require meeting the threshold hurdle of standing, meaning showing that the criminal defendant had a reasonable expectation of privacy under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. As...
Virginia criminal lawyer on a humane criminal justice system. Judicial compassion is too lacking for too many judges, even for plenty who start out seeing their judgeship as an ideal role. When glimpsing the sleeve of his or her black robes, a judge hopefully will...
Fairfax criminal lawyer urges good police and judicial conduct to be contagions for a better criminal justice system. Police patience and de-escalation are sorely needed in our overpoliced society where I have witnessed a police officer yelling his head off at a driver who had...
Virginia DUI lawyer obtains DWI victory at the suppression hearing stage. DWI victory and criminal defense victory is preceded by substantial preparation. including keeping updated on the relevant science and law, obtaining and fully analyzing the case evidence, and working as a team with my...
Fairfax criminal lawyer applauds marijuana's inroads with legalization, decriminalization, and medicinal use. Happy 420. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I learned long ago that 420, 4/20 (April 20), and 4:20 (as in toking near the end of the school or work day at 4:20 p.m.)...
Fairfax criminal lawyer on a marijuana case victory for Timothy Leary. Marijuana tax act (Act) prosecutions were popular right through the 1960's, until the United States Supreme Court in 1969 reversed LSD guru Timothy Leary's conviction for not complying with the Act, in that complying...
Virginia criminal lawyer warns to keep one's birthday suit clothed in the presence of children. Exposing genitals to a minor can get an adult in hot water in Virginia. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that too many adults will intentionally expose their genitals...
Cecil Taylor left his body on April 5, 2018, at the age of eighty-nine. While I only infrequently mention the passing of people on this blog, lest it become an obituary blog rather than law blog, Cecil merits this pause to deeply thank and bow...
Fairfax criminal lawyer on criminal liability for discharging a firearm indoors in Virginia. Unlawful firearm discharge indoors is a Class 4 or 6 felony in Virginia (depending on whether malice is involved), respectively carrying up to ten and five years in prison. As a Fairfax...
