Jon Katz’s victories

Image from National Institute of Standards & Technology. Winning in court is not about brute force nor about merely believing that the client deserves victory. It is about constant preparation, devotion, practice, passion, study with others and solo, and belief in the lawyer’s client and...

Image from public domain. Many medical marijuana users grow multiple marijuana plants to assure an uninterrupted supply of quality medicine. When one is prosecuted for growing multiple marijuana plants in the jurisdictions where I practice (where only Maryland has an affirmative medical marijuana defense among the jurisdictions...

A critical part of persuasion is storytelling, including bringing the jury within the circle of the story. Of course, storytelling alone may not be persuasive enough, because trials ordinarily involve various versions of the truth and challenges to the credibility and reliability of various opposing witnesses...

Image from National Institute of Standards & Technology. Recently in a Virginia District Court drunk driving trial, the judge agreed with me not to find a blood alcohol level level higher than a 0.20 despite the 0.21 reading made by the state’s blood examination expert...

Image from public domain. When police seem to catch a suspect red-handed with drugs, is all automatically lost? No. Defenses still can include contesting the stop and search that leads to the discovery of the alleged drugs; challenging whether the seized item(s) is actually a...

Last week, I won a drunk driving case in Virginia District Court. Here are some of the highlights of our victory: – My client’s Intoximeter EC/IR (breathalyzer) reading was 0.08. – The prosecutor presented the testimony of the cop, the breath technician, and the Virginia...

Image from public domain. In late 2006, I blogged about getting a thirty-plant Maryland marijuana felony prosecution reduced to a simple marijuana possession conviction, and a medical marijuana sentence of a $100 fine plus court costs, which ultimately was converted to a probation before judgment. ...

Image from National Institute of Standards & Technology. Where I usually practice law in Maryland, a drunk driving defendant with a good driving record and nothing unusual in his or her case is a good candidate for a probation before judgment after any guilty verdict....

Bill of Rights. (From the public domain.) Recently, I won a marijuana possession case in federal magistrate’s court. I won the case not through pulling any rabbits out of the hat, but by using procedural rules and procedural strategy to my advantage.  My client was issued...

Photo from website of U.S. District Court (W.D. Mi.). An essential focus at the Trial Lawyers College is to replace verbal legalese droning at trial with painting word images, telling persuasive stories by re-enacting events, and talking from the first-person perspective of non-lawyers involved in...