Having a criminal record can interfere with every aspect of your life, limiting employment, housing, and lending opportunities while burdening you with a negative social stigma. However, you may be able to clear your name by obtaining something called an expungement, which seals your record so that it cannot be accessed by the vast majority of…
Why Do I Need a Lawyer for an Expungement?
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Brown on Corruption
George D. Brown (Boston College Law School) has posted Applying Citizens United to Ordinary Corruption (Notre Dame Law Review, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Federal criminal law frequently deals with the problem of corruption in the form of...
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CCJRC Weekly Legislative Update
www.ccjrc.org
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Crash on EB I184 Blocks Traffic
IDAHO STATE POLICE NEWS RELEASE - generated by our News Release ListServer DO NOT REPLY --------------------------------------------------------------------------- IDAHO STATE POLICE NEWS RELEASE District 3 Patrol 700 S. Stratford Dr., Meridian 83642 (208) 846-7550 Fax (208) 846-7520 For Immediate Release: 04/07/15 9:14 am Please direct questions to the District Office The Idaho State Police is currently on location of a crash involving a commercial vehicle with a trailer on its side, I184 at milepost 1, prior to the Curtis off ramp. All lanes of traffic are currently blocked. Traffic is being merged onto the right shoulder of the road. Motorists are encouraged to avoid the area if possible. SG /SA -------------
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"What’s the right way to compensate someone for decades of lost freedom?"
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More Gangs Are Joining Forces to Commit Crimes in Texas, Says Report
Tuesday, April 7, 2015Gangs represent a “significant public safety threat” in Texas, and are responsible for a disproportionate amount of crime in many communities, a new report by the Department of Public Safety has concluded. The report says gang activity is particularly prevalent in West Texas close to the border with Mexico which has a major problem with gang cartels. ... Read More The post More Gangs Are Joining Forces to Commit Crimes in Texas, Says Report appeared first on .
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New Urban Institute report examines challenges posed by mentally ill offenders
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What Happens During a Criminal Trial in Utah?
Being arrested and charged with a crime is a traumatizing experience, both for the suspect and their loved ones. While it’s natural to feel nervous about what may happen in the days to come, knowing what to expect during trial can help put your mind at ease. In this blog post, defense lawyer Darwin Overson will explain what generally takes place during a criminal trial in Utah, including the stages of the legal process leading up to the trial itself. How Court Works: Stages of Criminal Procedure Movies and TV shows often make it seem as though suspects go straight to trial after being arrested. In reality, the defendant must go through multiple hearings and court appearances before the trial itself takes place. The first hearing after the arrest is referred as the initial hearing or arraignment. The main purpose of arraignment is to formally announce the charges to the defendant. If the charge is a misdemeanor, like misdemeanor drug…
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Too white to strike? Reverse-Batson rears its head
Today's unpublished Strong opinion shows the Sixth Circuit wrestling with the always-problematic reverse-Batson claim, made especially problematic here in light of some, shall we say, unusual comments made by the district judge during voir dire.In a case with two African-American defendants, defense counsel exercised peremptory strikes against three white members of the jury pool. After the government raised a reverse-Batson challenge, the court determined that the defense had presented racially-neutral reasons for two of the strikes, but found that the last one was "poorly supported" and "pretextual." Defense counsel offered several explanations for striking the juror, including that he appeared to have worked for another potential juror and that he had stared at one of the defendants during voir dire. The court believed that both of those explanations were factually unsupported. But the court did not stop there. Instead, it unfortunately…
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What criteria must injuries meet to file a claim for pain and suffering? Limited Tort Restrictions in Newtown, PA
If you have limited tort car accident insurance, then you must have a serious injury to claim pain and suffering damages. When residents of Newtown, PA purchase car accident insurance, they have a choice between limited tort and full tort. Full tort gives you unrestricted ability to recover for pain and suffering damages in a car accident. However, pain and suffering (limited tort) applies restrictions to your compensationPain and suffering damages compensate you for the following damages.Physical pain from the injuryEmotional/psychological pain that you have suffered as a result of the injuriesWhat are the limitations to filing for pain and suffering under limited tort? There are no hard and fast guidelines about what constitutes a “serious” injury. Courts decide these matters on a case-by-case basis. Your best option if involved in an accident and you have only limited tort on your insurance, is to get in touch with a Newtown lawyer and seek legal guidance.There…
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DEA Secretly Tracked Billions of Phone Records For Decades
Via USA Today: For more than two decades, the Justice Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration amassed logs of virtually all telephone calls from the USA to as many as 116 countries linked to drug trafficking, current and former... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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$150,000+ Jury Verdict in Federal Court Against Federal Express
Our client was driving down a Falls Township, Bucks County road picking up her partner from work when a FedEx box truck blew a stop sign and t-boned her car causing severe injuries. After she treated conservatively for well over a year, it was recommended that she have a spinal fusion surgery due to ongoing debilitating pain and radicular symptoms down her arm. She underwent a double level spinal fusion surgery which relieved most of her radicular symptoms, but she was left we intense constant neck pain. She also had to change careers due to her post surgical medical restrictions.A lawsuit was filed in the Philadelphia Court System but was removed by FedEx's attorneys to Federal Court. The case was litigated extensively and experts were retained. A multi-day trial was conducted whereby a conservative jury found FedEx liable for the crash and the injuries caused to our client.
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This is what less government looks like: Big budget savings from reduced criminal penalties
Bills reducing criminal penalties would save big bucks, according to state estimates. As the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee prepares to hear several bills reducing criminal penalties today, the Legislative Budget Board issued fiscal notes estimating cost savings to the state:HB 254 by Thompson reducing penalties for possession of less than a gram of a controlled substance: $105.2 million.HB 3326 by Thompson reducing penalties for low-level drug possession and prostitution along with adjusting theft thresholds for inflation: $163.8 million.HB 2165 by Simpson legalizing pot and treating it like tomatoes: $71.2 million to the state, much more to counties and cities.HB 507 by Moody reducing possession of less than an ounce of pot from a Class B misdemeanor to a civil penalty: $1.9 million, plus a net positive to counties. To fantasize for a moment, make Grits Philosopher King and here's my suggestion: Pass HB 3326 and HB 2165, save $235 million, and use the…
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Las Vegas Trial Attorney
Contact a Trial Attorney Early When someone has been arrested and charged with a serious felony, they will automatically be taken to jail to establish the charges and the bail. At that point, it is important to arrange for a bond quickly and not to waste time so that you can obtain a talented and experienced trial lawyer. The Potter Law Firm, which is located in Las Vegas, is skilled in handling the most difficult of cases. Cal Potter is an expert trial attorney, a talent he has developed over the past 30 years here in Nevada and in other states. He is committed to protecting the rights of those who have been accused of crimes such as felony drug charges, casino markers and fraud, violent crimes or those who have been injured by no fault of their own. With thousands of successful cases to his credit, Mr. Potter has the knowledge and talent of identifying details that are often overlooked, which he can then use on the client’s behalf as he presents the case in court. If…
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PITTSFIELD JURY TRIAL OF UMASS AMHERST RAPE SUSPECTS ENDS IN CONVICTION
We have had a number of discussions about how schools (primarily colleges) grapple with the allegations of sex crimes. Some of the “new” and “improved” solutions have boarded on the ludicrous in my experienced opinion, but that is an issue for another day. Today we visit one of the cases which led to the present state of affairs of said college self-analysis. It is a case from Northampton, Massachusetts. The University involved is the University of Massachusetts Amherst. It is a case which began in October, 2012. I blogged about it, which posting can be found here. The case involved four defendants from Pittsfield. They are apparently being tried separately and the first trial just finished. None of them were students at the school, although one young man, Emmanuel Bile, 21, (hereinafter, the “Defendant”), knew the complainant. He was the first to be brought to trial. The trial ended this week. The charges involved the alleged…
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Injury Crash on the Connector
IDAHO STATE POLICE NEWS RELEASE - generated by our News Release ListServer DO NOT REPLY --------------------------------------------------------------------------- IDAHO STATE POLICE NEWS RELEASE District 3 Patrol 700 S. Stratford Dr., Meridian 83642 (208) 846-7550 Fax (208) 846-7520 For Immediate Release: 04/08/2015 12:08 Please direct questions to the District Office On Wednesday, April 08, 2015, at 8:01 a.m., the Idaho State Police investigated a single vehicle injury crash on the connector, eastbound Interstate 184 at milepost 2, just west of Curtis. Morgan R. Benson, 22 years old, of Idaho Falls, was driving east on Interstate 184 in a 2011 Nissan Altima when she lost control of the vehicle , drove off the left shoulder and struck a concrete barrier. The vehicle traveled across 3 lanes of traffic, went off the right shoulder, through a right-of-way fence. It continued 400 feet into a field before coming to rest at a ditch embankment. Benson was wearing a seatbelt…
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Fondacaro on Developmental Differences in Juvenile Justice
Mark R. Fondacaro, J.D., Ph.D. (John Jay College - CUNY) has posted Rethinking the Scientific and Legal Implications of Developmental Differences Research in Juvenile Justice (17 New Crim. L. Rev. 407 (2014)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: A recent...
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Federal Sentencing in White Collar, Fraud Cases Needs Reform
As criminal defense lawyers who represent individuals accused of white collar and fraud cases, we often object to the severe sentences suggested by the federal sentencing […]
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Guilty as Hell
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been convicted on all 30 charges against him, including 17 punishable by death. The sentencing phase will begin soon, at which the abolitionist crowd, regardless of the horrifying facts of this case, will be rooting for the defense side. How anyone can root for this defendant at any point and in any form or fashion just mystifies me.The CNN story reports that, "Tsarnaev stood with his head bowed and his hands clasped as the verdicts were read." I congratulate counsel on a good job of coaching. Tsarnaev's scribbled note inside the boat where he was captured gave the unscrubbed version of his degree of contrition, to wit, none. Whether counsel will be able to persuade him to continue occasionally faking contrition is an open question.I'll bet $100 here and now, however, that he will not take the stand. Under cross examination, there's too much chance his hatred for infidels, and the United States…
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Is Your Confidentiality Agreement a Ticking Time Bomb? SEC’s First Action Over Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Protections Targets Company’s Internal Investigations
For the first time in the nearly five years since Dodd-Frank went into effect, the SEC last week took action against a company over concerns that the company was preventing its employees from potentially blowing the whistle on illegal activity. The action is significant because the SEC was targeting seemingly innocuous language in a confidentiality agreement and there were no allegations that the company, KBR, Inc., was otherwise breaking the law. The Dodd-Frank Act amended the Securities Exchange Act to provide for whistleblower incentives and protections in order to encourage individuals to report possible violations of securities laws, but the new law goes further than merely encouraging reporting. Under SEC Rule 21F-17, companies may not take action to impede individuals from communicating with SEC staff about possible law violations, “including enforcing, or threatening to enforce, a confidentiality agreement . . . with respect to such…
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