So here's a bit of good news: In the race to succeed longtime Pinellas County Judge Henry Andringa, Cathy McKyton defeated Scott Andringa. Scott Andringa is Henry Andringa's son. I don't know anything about Cathy McKyton, except that Brian Tannebaum supported her, which means she probably isn't a complete tool. On the other hand, I know plenty about her opponent, Scott … [Read more...] about Scott Andringa Won’t Be a Judge After All
Legal
An Urgent Legal Question About Ladies’ Undergarments
Lawyers in the blogosphere are always complaining that having a presence on the internet doesn't bring them more business, just more people asking for free legal advice. Today, while cleaning out a bunch of spam email, I discovered that somebody was asking me for free legal advice. Since I'm not a lawyer in any way, shape, or form, I figured I'd throw it out to all my readers, … [Read more...] about An Urgent Legal Question About Ladies’ Undergarments
Dangers of Searching for a DUI Lawyer Online
If you've ever tried to use Google to find a lawyer for a DUI or traffic offense, you've probably stumbled across one of those relentlessly SEO optimized sites that isn't actually a law firm but promises to put you in touch with a lawyer. Basically, they're referral services. This always seemed annoying but harmless to me. To Spokane, Washington criminal defense attorney Steve … [Read more...] about Dangers of Searching for a DUI Lawyer Online
TOS OMG
Remember Lori Drew? She's the woman who used MySpace to play a very unkind trick on a teenage girl named Megan Meier, who killed herself. Prosecutors in Missouri, where Drew and Meier both lived, didn't prosecute her for this, probably because saying mean things to little girls isn't a criminal act. That didn't stop grandstanding U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O'Brien from stepping … [Read more...] about TOS OMG
Towards a Definition of Reasonable Doubt: A Modest Proposal
I'm not sure, but I think I may have just taken a huge step toward solving one of the toughest problems in criminal law: The meaning of reasonable doubt. It is famously difficult to define this standard for members of the jury, which is a problem, because they're supposed to use it to decide if someone is guilty. Scott Greenfield brought this up again a couple of months ago in … [Read more...] about Towards a Definition of Reasonable Doubt: A Modest Proposal