From the monthly archives:

April 2010

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

April 29, 2010 Law Practice

There has been a lot of discussion recently about ineffective assistance of counsel. Gideon, Mark Bennett, Scott Greenfield, and Jeff Gamso have all done interesting pieces that are worth reading. The effectiveness of public defenders came up during this discussion, and, as regular readers of this blog know, I can never resist the opportunity to [...]

Read the full article →

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 [...]

Read the full article →

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 [...]

Read the full article →

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 [...]

Read the full article →

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 [...]

Read the full article →

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, [...]

Read the full article →

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 [...]

Read the full article →

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 [...]

Read the full article →

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 [...]

Read the full article →

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 [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries