Underdog Blog – Fairfax Criminal Defense Lawyer | Virginia DUI Attorney

Hidden defenses (HD) need to be among your Virginia criminal defense lawyer's arsenal. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, by HD I mean defensive opportunities that may not be readily apparent to laypeople. Those opportunities might include Constitutional challenges seeking to suppress your statements to law...

Drug proximity can be risky, unless possessed lawfully by prescription or as over the counter products. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that police do not hesitate to arrest everyone near contolled substances, and to let the criminal defendants aregue why they are not...

Clam up about your criminal activities or criminal intent, or be ready for possible prosecutorial backlash. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know people will sometimes speak hyperbolically about threats of violence or other crimes, but doing so can be like lighting a forest fire,...

Responsible persons RP need to recognize their responsibilities with vulnerable adults. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I emphasize that the cold hearted person who simply ignores a person in medical distress can ignore the criminal liability that s/he otherwise would incur if an RP. The...

Search arguments are needed when your Virginia prosecution is based on the alleged discovery of controlled substances or other alleged contraband. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, i know it is important that if you lose your evidence suppression motion under the foregoing circumstances, to talk...

Fairfax sentence commutation is in this week's news, with the Virginia governor's having swiftly commuted last Friday's sentence of former county police officer Wesley Shifflett for reckless handling of a firearm that led to the death of a shoplifting suspect he was chasing. As a...

Complete disclosure by Virginia assistant commonwealth attorneys -- and all prosecutors -- is essential under federal Supreme Court jurisprudence. The Supreme Court in 2025 made that clear in the starkest terms. Glossip v. Oklahoma, ___ U.S. ___, 2025 WL 594736 (2025). Glossip was issued shortly after a...

Pretextual inventory searches of police-stopped automobiles -- where the real police motive is to conduct an unlawful search -- are inevitably going to take place in this climate where appellate court caselaw allows police to stop a motor vehicle for a moving violation, where the...

Public masturbation (PM) is a jailable offense in Virginia.  As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that the number of possible counts for that crime is totaled from the defendant's alleged actions, and not his or her number of victims. Samuel Harris was caught red...

Cocaine convictions and all other convictions often come about only because the suspect / Virginia criminal defendant did not assert their Constitutional right to silence under the Fifth Amendment. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I cheer when defendants assert that right, and often bury my...