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Arrest warrants should never be ignored. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer and Virginia DUI attorney, I know that ignoring them leaves the warrants a chance to catch up on the defendant in unforeseen and undesirable ways. Arrest warrants ordinarily get issued as a result of...

Like bear feasting on salmon swimming upstream, police often troll for arrestees in such easy picking areas as bar neighborhoods and at such times as Memorial Day weekend. If that were not so, why are Arlington County, Virginia, police out in force on Friday and...

A conviction cannot be obtained without a charging document that sufficiently puts the defendant on notice of the crime with which s/he is being accused. Raja v. Virginia, 40 Va.App. 710 (2003). The Virginia charging document for misdemeanors in District Court will be a warrant...

In Virginia, willfully failing to appear for a felony court date is a Class 6 felony, jailable up to five years with a fine up to $2,500.00 Willfully failing to appear for a misdemeanor case is a Class 1 misdemeanor, jailable up to one...

Public intoxication arrests run rampant in Virginia. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I remember first witnessing a public intoxication (also known as drunk in public / DIP ) investigation and arrest when two courthouse sheriff's deputies called out for the suspect to "blow, blow, blow"...

This police state still exists because too many people support and tolerate it, and because it has taken on a life of its own. The police state can still be reversed, but we need to work together and doggedly to reverse it.

“You do not have the right to quit trying. (The universe wobbles when you do.) You have the right to quit Toxic People. (They’re contagious.) .” Dr. SunWolf (who confirms to me that this ubiquitous quote is indeed hers). In Practical Jury Dynamics, amazing human,...

Bill of Rights (From public domain.) Five years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36 (2004). For testimonial evidence, Crawford scrapped the rule of Ohio v. Roberts, 448 U.S. 56 (1980), that the Sixth Amendment right to confront one’s accusers does not preclude...

When I became a public defender lawyer in the early 1990’s all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed to fight the good fight, it turned out that my survival instincts — developed all the more since early childhood by growing up among plenty of peers who were more...