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Jon Katz’s victories

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Defending and winning in federal magistrate’s court

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...

Winning on Framing Club Ah v. Club Blah

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...

Why plead guilty when pleading innocent is not much more risky?

Photo from website of U.S. District Court (W.D. Mi.). Most people in my neck of the woods go to court without a lawyer for non-jailable criminal matters. However, even non-jailable convictions can come back to haunt people. For instance, a conviction for possessing a pot...

Defending online copyright infringement

On September 19, 2008, I went to sentencing with my client for this online copyright infringement case. Fortunately, the judge varied substantially below the sentencing guidelines, saying that they are excessive for my client’s case, after having addressed such factors as the sentences of co-conspirators that...

Yow! I AM having fun, on the road to a win

Image from National Institute of Standards & Technology. Zippy the Pinhead is my favorite comic strip. Zippy spews non sequiturs, repeatedly proclaims "Yow!", and asks "Are we having fun yet?" in this overcommercialized society that tells people they won’t be glad til they use Dial....

The importance of pleading innocent

The only way to know if a defendant will win is to go to trial. This month yielded another example of why it is critical to go to trial when the outcome from an innocent plea is not likely to be any worse than the...

Client Caught in Disbelief Over an Acquittal

A drug possession conviction requires probable cause to seize the alleged drugs; proof that the seized item constitutes illegal drugs; and proof beyond a reasonable doubt of knowledge, dominion and control over the alleged drugs. When I started doing criminal defense over fifteen years ago,...