Flex Your Rights has added me to its eight-member Advisory Board. As a Fairfax Criminal Lawyer, I am honored to be joining such civil liberties fighters as Ira Glasser (Drug Policy Alliance president and past longtime ACLU exective director) and Billy Murphy, who is a...
Unreasonable refusal convictions for declining to be breath or blood tested for blood alcohol content, amount to a civil offense for a first charge and a criminal conviction for a subsequent offense (after a prior conviction for DWI or refusal). As a Fairfax criminal lawyer,...
Fast guilty and no contest plea hearings in the Virginia General District Court and Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court are common in Northern Virginia counties where appear. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that this approach with agreed pleas and sentencings between...
Revocation of probation is a risk that many criminal defendants do not consider as much as simply staying out of jail in the first place or getting released from jail as soon as possible. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that many convicted criminal...
Coercion by police is among the first things I look for as a Fairfax criminal lawyer pursuing the suppression of my client's statements to law enforcement. In 1986, the United States Supreme Court ruled that a Fifth Amendment or Miranda violation does not take place...
Double jeopardy protections apply not only to successive prosecutions on acquitted conduct, but also for multiple duplicative counts for the same act. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know the necessity of always looking for double jeopardy defenses. Howard Groffel learned the hard way that...
DUI defense in Fairfax County, Virginia has its own similarities and differences to nearby counties. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I deal with each county's differing courthouse landscape in defending against DWI and other criminal charges. I have written previously about handling criminal investigations, dealing...
Larceny / theft / false pretenses / embezzlement / financial fraud (collectively "larceny" or "theft") prosecutions threaten one's reputation, career path, immigration status, and security clearance options, let alone the serious sentencing consequences that can come from a larceny conviction. As a Fairfax criminal...
Underage drinkers and users of false identification risk prosecution under statutes that carry possible jail time. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that the days are over when the legal drinking age in many states through the 1980's was eighteen, and when using a...
Prevailing over the odds and obstacles is what I strive for as a Fairfax criminal lawyer. This means not looking for a fair playing field, a judge who will help me obtain justice, a prosecutor who will not have ice in his or her veins,...
Harmless error analysis often is used by appellate courts to deny relief to criminal defendants. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that sometimes appellate courts find the trial evidence of a criminal defendant's guilt so overwhelming as to make it unnecessary to provide relief...
Clicking an Internet link from a questionable source can be a risky proposition. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that images run rampant online that can be prosecuted and convicted as child pornography, obscenity, or both. Moreover, clicking even one website with such content...
Barring criminal defense witnesses is a risk for a trial judge. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know the importance of convincing the judge to permit defense witnesses to testify and to preserve the appellate record in the event the trial court bars any defense...
Nude photo requests by adults to minors is a crime in Virginia. As a Fairfax criminal defense lawyer, I know that even if the seeming minor is not a minor but the requestor has reason to believe it is a minor, that is still a...
Massacres and mass violence this past weekend dominated the news. Mass murders have become so frequent that if I blogged about each one, this would become a massacre blog rather than a Fairfax criminal lawyer blog. Mass murders do not merit more attention than individual...
Blood tests are frequently obtained pursuant to a search warrant in Virginia DWI cases where the arrestee refuses breath testing, is unable to provide a sufficient breath sample, has been injured and taken to the hospital, or is suspected of having being influenced by drugs....
Sex offender registration requirements in Virginia make it a crime for those with applicable sex crime convictions not to register and re-register as a sex offender as required under the law. As a Virginia criminal lawyer, I know that those required to so register prefer...
Computer monitoring by police for unlawful Internet activity is rampant, including police impersonating children online, seeking to catch pedophiles for prosecution, conviction and imprisonment. As a Virginia criminal lawyer, I both decry adults seeking sexual activity with minors, and abhor the overly harsh sentencing that...
Working with your Virginia DUI lawyer is about teamwork and not standing on the sidelines as a spectator. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I have experienced the wonderful results that take place when my client and I work as a united front. DWI and criminal...
Choosing a Fairfax DUI lawyer or criminal attorney is a critically important decision. Here are some things to consider in making that choice: Criminal defense work is not for the faint of heart. As a Fairfax DUI lawyer / criminal attorney, I know that this...
