Judges

Court victory is never obtained through wishful thinking, stroking a lucky rabbit's foot, nor good looks. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that court victory comes from a lawyer's relying on his or her own ability, wits, human greatness, sweat and toil.

When I blogged about using threat ability a as a key component of winning, a non-lawyer friend told me he saw a glaring absence of my addressing compassion, which subject is essential for me as a person and Fairfax criminal lawyer. That point is well...

Being a judge is a privilege with awesome responsibility and power. Once a judge stops seeing judging as a privilege, it is time for the judge to hang up the judicial robes. Judging can be exhausting work. The criminal and civil lawsuits do not stop...

Soldiers and street fighters battle without referees nor the expectation of referees' presence. They fight in the law of the jungle. As we approach four years of the buffoon-elect in chief's White House tenure, I have low overall expectations of Trump's upcoming nominees to...

It is easy to find ourselves challenged to succumb to automatic pilot mode during the day, constantly moving, moving, moving. Criminal defense lawyers constantly prepare for battle victory. Judges tell us when to come to court and when to start our trial. Clients merit timely...

The New York Times's Shaila Dewan recently depicted the sad circumstances, at best, about judicial and prosecutorial efforts to thwart journalists' access to and coverage of court actions.

Prosecutors, judges and everyone else are human. When their stomachs rumble with hunger and when their blood curdles at frightful testimony, they are going to have a human response. The best judges and prosecutors temper that response.

In law school, we learn legal rules, legal tests, legal analysis, legal counter-analysis, legal theory, legalese, and legal jargon. As criminal trial lawyers, we often spend so much time dealing with evidence, investigation, discovery and persuasion that we need to remember at each step to...

Jurors are yanked from their jobs, families, and other obligations to be paid a pittance to render verdicts on monumentally critical criminal and civil matters. If the criminal defense lawyer does not appreciate this state of affairs, it is at his client's peril.

Some judges seem to take delight in trying to dispirit lawyers. Others do unintentional things that dispirit lawyers. The right lawyer is hard to dispirit. Being dispirited interferes with powerful battle.