negotiations

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 the taijiquan martial art that I practice, we have the concepts of sparring inside a circle, disrupting the opponent's circle, and preventing the opponent from disrupting our own circle. Similarly, it is ideal for me to speak and negotiate with prosecutors in a proverbial...

Once the prosecutor makes a settlement offer, that offer becomes seared in the prosecutor's mind. Sometimes it is better for the defendant to make the first settlement offer, in an effort to sear the defendant's settlement offer in the prosecutor's mind.

Shoplifting collections letters are part of retailers' larger efforts to minimize loss from theft. For that reason alone, a person cannot expect to pick his or her nose or scratch his or her butt in a large store without being caught on security camera.

As glorious as are criminal trial victories, settlement negotiations are very important for many criminal defendants, because many of them are caught redhanded and have thin reeds at best for avoiding worse and significantly more punishing outcomes at trial than trough settling their case.

My community service recommendations come in the context of my advising my criminal defense clients to complete some tasks or "homework" to assist in negotiating their cases and to assist with any possible sentencing.