April 2010

On the Effectiveness of Public Defenders, Court-Appointed Lawyers, and Privately Retained Counsel

April 29, 2010 Law Practice

  Clients often don’t seem to understand the difference between public defenders, court-appointed lawyers, and privately retained counsel.  Who is your current lawyer, you ask the potential  client.  I don’t know, he says.  I think he is a PD.  Well, does he work for the PD’s office?  Or is he a lawyer on his own [...]

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A Noobie on Twitter

April 28, 2010 Criminal Law Bloggers

Yesterday I posted about my ambivalence on joining Twitter.  Today I joined. Mark Bennett was the first person to welcome me.  Scott Greenfield was the second, and, true to form, his welcome consisted mostly of an admonition about the non-commercial purpose of Twitter. (This blog is apparently known for its marketing.) Windy Pundit and Mirriam [...]

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On Blog Addiction and Twitter

April 27, 2010 Criminal Law Bloggers

I get up most mornings at around 5:00 am and, shutting the door so that I don’t disturb my still-sleeping wife, step into my study off the master bedroom.  I have an hour until the gym opens, three hours until I need to drive my son to school. First I check my email. Then I [...]

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Ineffective Assistance of Counsel and Me

April 25, 2010 Law Practice

I used to joke that, since every lawyer needs a specialty, I would focus on ineffective assistance of counsel.  That is, I would become the number one lawyer in the whole state of Pennsylvania, or the nation even, at providing ineffective assistance of counsel. I may joke but, I have to admit, I have had [...]

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On Visiting the Supposed Crime Scene

April 23, 2010 Evidence

As a public defender, I tried to visit the crime scene as often as possible.  Although I was never able to actually break a case by doing this, that is, find that piece of evidence that would exonerate the client, the visits always provided important information. At the very least, you get a feel for [...]

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Koehler Law Extends Criminal Practice Into Northern Virginia

April 23, 2010 Law Practice

I woke up this morning to find out that I passed the February 2010 bar for Virginia.  Thank you to the readers here who first alerted me. Congratulations to those of you who said you also passed. I will now be extending my criminal law practice into Arlington, Alexandria, Falls Church, Frederick, Clarke, Prince William, [...]

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The Defendant Has Left The Building

April 22, 2010 Law Practice

Whenever a judge dismisses a case for lack of prosecution, the best advice to a client is not to stand there celebrating.  It is to get out of the courtroom and out of the courthouse as quickly as possible. I was sitting in court yesterday, waiting for my case to be called, when the judge [...]

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On Being Held In Contempt of Court

April 21, 2010 Law Practice

A couple of months ago, Carol D. of Public Defender Revolution told the story about a judge who tried to force her to trial on a case when she wasn’t ready.  This put Ms. D. into a very difficult position.  She couldn’t put her client’s interests at risk by proceeding unprepared to trial.  She therefore [...]

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On Blonde Justice and Blogrolls

April 20, 2010 Criminal Law Bloggers

Six months or so ago, I would have hardly known what a blogroll is. Today I am very honored to have been added to what must be one of the most coveted blogrolls in the criminal law blogosphere; namely, that of Blonde Justice. You can hardly go anywhere in the blawgosphere without coming across Blonde [...]

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Latest Twist On The Car In Our Front Yard

April 19, 2010 Miscellaneous

Over the last week or so, I have written a couple of times about the guy who drove his car onto our front lawn and into our brick wall.  The incident has created quite a stir on our quiet little street in Arlington where things like this don’t usually happen. Complicating things is the fact [...]

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