Criminal Defense

Virginia probation agents (VPAs) can make their probationers' lives a living hell, or not. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that VPAs have many demands on their schedules, including directly supervising probationers, preparing presentence reports (PSRs), drafting probation violation reports, appearing in court for...

Protective orders (PO's) in Virginia are not effective on a respondent / defendat before the respondent is served a copy of the order or otherwise sufficiently put on notice of the order. Claramunt v. Commonwealth of Virginia, ___ Va. App. ___ (2025). Moreover, the Virginia Court...

Police tactics are many for extracting confessions from criminal suspects, consenting to searches by law enforcement officers (LEO), and agreeing to engage in field sobriety testing (FSTs or SFSTs) for Virginia DUI investigations. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know you have a Fifth and...

Virginia probation revocation (VPR) proceedings can be very stressful on defendants. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that 2021 brought a great statutory change that limits penalties for alleged "technical" probation violations, versus new convictions that cause a probation violation. Virginia Code § 19.2-306.1 However, if...

SCVA DUI decisions are infrequent, which makes them all the more worthy of attention. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I see that the Poulson v. Commonwealth of Virginia opinion reinforces limits on entitlement to Miranda warnings and does without an arrest warrant requirement when police already are on...

Cherry picking is common for prosecutors while direct examining police, to use in putting the criminal defendants' statements to law enforcement officers (LEO) in the light most unfavorable to the defendant. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I recognize how maddening it can be for prosecutors...

Immigrants and all non-U.S. citizens: As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I warn you that the current presidential administration is eager to deport and not admit people with particular convictions, sentences and even particular pending criminal charges and viewpoints. This stands in stark contrast to the...

Avoding voluntary police testing can spell the difference between acquittal and conviction. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that when, for instance, police suspect a person of violating Virginia Code § 18.2-266  (driving under the influence (DUI) of alcohol and/or drugs or driving while...

Fairfax criminal blue sheets (FCBS) (formally known as Trial Advisement And Plea forms) are a staple of negotiating many criminal cases in the Fairfax County General District Court (with variations on those forms being common in the remaining Northern courts). As a Fairfax criminal lawyer,...

Fairfax Circuit Court (FCC) judges sometimes decide to issue and publish written opinions to explain their rulings. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that not all other Virginia circuit courts make their judges' opinion letters available online, which often are nonetheless available on such...