Right to counsel

Jail risks in Virginia criminal court sometimes may be anticipated and sometimes not. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I pursue not only acquittals, but also ways to minimize the collateral damage from a Virginia criminal conviction on one's career, security clearance, immigration status, uniformed military...

Fairfax criminal defense -- and defense in all criminal courts -- includes making every effort to exclude all adverse statements actually and allegedly made by the defendant. As a Virginia criminal lawyer, I look at the totality of the circumstances for such challenges, including the...

Invoking one's Fifth and Sixth Amendment right to not talk with police without a lawyer so often spells the difference between liberty and conviction and incarceration. As a Virginia criminal defense attorney, I know that appellate courts only protect this right when invoked clearly and...

Recently, an unrepresented misdemeanor defendant appeared before a rather new Maryland judge for the non-jailable but nevertheless criminal misdemeanor charge of possessing an open alcoholic beverage container. Md. Code Alc. Bev. art. §6–322. The defendant asked the judge for a postponement, apparently to seek a...

Today, the United States Court of Appeals confirmed that said court has “never held that counsel can be relinquished by means short of waiver.” Consequently, the trial court’s finding of forfeiture of counsel by felony defendant Phillip Ductan’s uncooperative pretrial behavior during his criminal trial was...