In my years of lawyering, I’ve appeared before dozens of judges. Here in Minnesota, most of them are diligent, fair, and work hard. However, there are a few judges who are definitely biased and do and say inappropriate things in court. If you are scheduled to appear before one of the bad ones, what can your lawyer do …
I’ve tried dozens of jury trials as both a prosecutor and defense lawyer and have been to many trial schools and courses about how to pick a jury. In previous posts, I’ve written about the typical questioning that occurs between the lawyers and the prospective jurors. You’ve seen some of this on TV. Of course, some of it …
So you’ve received your notice for jury duty? What can you expect? In my last post, I wrote about how jurors were initially selected. Once they are in the courtroom, in state courts, the lawyers do most of the questioning.
What are the lawyers looking for and why do they ask the questions they do?
Prior to starting …
Why would a criminal defendant choose to represent himself rather than have a lawyer?
The Constitution and the Supreme Court have given every accused person in the U.S. the right to be represented by a lawyer. If he can’t afford one, there is a public defender system in every state to provide lawyers.
In over thirty years working …
Should criminal defense lawyers seek justice in court?
I had the wonderful opportunity the other week to be invited to speak to our local chapter of Sisters in Crime, a national writing group composed of both women and men dedicated to supporting mystery writers.
They asked me to talk about my experiences as a criminal defense lawyer over …
Have the Supremes given the police more power??
In the recent Thompkins case, the Supreme Court ruled that unless a citizen who’s under arrest as a criminal suspect actually says, “I don’t want to talk or I won’t talk without a lawyer,” police can continue questioning him for a long time..until they get a confession.
Suspect, Van Chester …
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