Free speech is a cornerstone of our society, for good reasons. A democracy depends on people being able to express their opinions about anybody, and anything. Even the richest and most powerful in society can be criticized by any citizen in a free society. Like all...
In order to search your house, the police need to have a warrant signed by a judge. In order to get the warrant, the police have to show that they are likely to find evidence of illegal activity at your house or other property controlled by you that they wish to...
It is a famous old saying, sometimes true, sometimes not. A common source of legal conflict is the building of fences, issues often come up about where the exact boundary line is and what the local rules are for building fences. To avoid winding up in court before you...
A civil case is when you are asking the court to order another person, or a business to pay you money, or to do something. Other types of cases are family cases, involving issues between married people, or concerning children, and criminal cases where someone is...
One of the toughest issues for attorneys and clients to talk about is fees. As in any other situation where a professional of any kind is hired, there is bargain, professional agrees to provide quality services to client, client agrees to pay professional. No one like...
Clients often ask me to get into court right away, or if they can get a court date next week. Unfortunately, with very few exceptions, the legal system is not built for speed. Cases take months to resolve. One can get into court for temporary decisions while a case is...
The term 'plea bargain' has a bad name, making people think of guilty people getting by on lesser charges or innocent people pleading guilty because their lawyer is too lazy or incompetent to take a case to trial. Those assumptions are certainly true in some cases,...
A large number of cases I have handled recently have involved blatant rip offs. I am not talking about the disputes that often happen in business, where there are two sides to the story, but situations where someone clearly went into a situation with the intention of...
FAMILY LAW, CIVIL LAW, CUSTODY, DIVORCE, CRIMINAL LAW, REAL ESTATE LAW. Those of you who remember the 90s probably remember this slogan, used by another Clinton running for president. Bill Clinton said that he would build a bridge to the 21st Century during the 1996...
Telling a client what they do not want to hear is probably the toughest job of a good lawyer, but also the most important. The only way a client can make good decisions is to have good information. If the client is not told that they are pushing for something that...