When Opposing Counsel Tries to Bully You

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Part of the fun of doing appeals and post-conviction work is hearing from colleagues with questions about things that arise in cases. Recently, I spoke with an attorney with an unusual situation. The lawyer was defense counsel on a serious child abuse matter. The prosecutor, when she supplied statutory discovery, told the lawyer that he…

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Client Intake to Build the Team

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Hiring a criminal defense attorney, whether at the trial court or appellate level, is a pretty complex thing. No matter how life-altering the case might be, the lawyer decision is huge. For the lawyer, taking on a client, whether at the trial court or appellate level, is a big decision, also. The client literally puts…

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The Importance of Lawyerly Agnosticism

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Recently Scott Greenfield wrote about David Aylor’s rather noisy departure from accused murderer, Michael Slager’s case. So much went wrong and was analyzed in the post. But there’s one piece of it that I want to emphasize here. Mr. Greenfield writes: It’s hard to blame Aylor for being sucked in by Slager’s lie. Clients lie…

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A Connection and Valuable Lesson from the Alma Mater

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Over the weekend, I received a package from my undergraduate school, Mercer University. Generally, when I receive correspondence from Mercer, Georgia State, or Emory, it’s alumni spam. This was in a hand-addressed manilla envelope. I have a recurring dream where a school I attended figures out I’m a credit short and revokes my degree. I…

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The Dark Side of Referrals

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A few days ago, Seth Godin wrot about referrals and their true meaning in a profession. When they work well, a referral comes with it a high degree of trust. When you refer a client to another person, you stake some of your reputation on the person to whom you made the referral. In addition, the person…

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Study Shows that Few Have Counsel for Bond Hearings

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It’s a scene I have witnessed hundreds, if not thousands, of times. At a first appearance hearing, a magistrate judge calls the calendar as twenty or so inmates in orange or green jumpsuits are brought out chained to one another. The look on their faces is one of shock or of last night’s drugs or…

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Lawyer Who Let Client Write Brief Faces Sanctions from SCOTUS

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I just read at Bitter Lawyer and The Lawyerist about a show cause order issued by the United States Supreme Court for the submission of a certiorari petition that was hard to read and which departed significantly from the Supreme Court rules. What happened? The lawyer allowed the client to draft the certiorari petition. I…

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To Be a Better Listener / To Ask for Advice Better

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It’s been a long holiday season, and January’s been a busy time. I’m hoping to re-develop the blogging habit. And I find that I am much better at writing posts when I’m reading posts. Toward that end, I opened up the RSS app and caught back up on my favorite blogs, Simple Justice and Defending…

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Breaking Bad News

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I found some good lawyering advice today in, of all places,The Annals of Oncology. There’s an article titled Breaking bad news in oncology: like a walk in the twilight. I’m not trying to be glib in making a comparison. Oncologists are oncologists, and lawyers are lawyers. But what we have in common is that we…

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Ray Lewis, Facebook, and the Justice System

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Ray Lewis’s retirement has made for an interesting time to be a criminal defense lawyer. Many of us who defend people for a living lead two lives. In one, we are in and out of jails, explaining things to clients. We are in the hallway huddled with families after a loved one was led out…

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