Legal

I've seen a number of distressing decisions come out of the Supreme Court, but this may be the most gut-wrenching I've seen in a long time. Here's how criminal defense lawyer Bobby G. Frederick sums it up: In Salinas v. Texas, decided today, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a suspect’s silence may be used against him in court – the officer can offer testimony about it and the … [Read more...] about You No Longer Have the Right To Remain Silent

A few weeks ago, I wrote about an organization called First Defense Legal Aid that provides legal advice to people arrested or detained by the Chicago Police, just by calling 1-800-LAW-REP-4. Criminal defense lawyer Matt Haiduk (whose blog I quoted in the original post) adds this note in a comment: ...don’t ever think it’s as easy as mentioning you want a lawyer and thinking … [Read more...] about More About Talking To a Lawyer When Arrested

Over at Simple Justice, Scott Greenfield has been smacking around former federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, because Scott's not happy with the advice Fitzgerald is giving to some corporate clients. At times, Scott seems puzzled by the things Fitzgerald is saying (although I suspect Scott is faking to highlight the outrageousness).Here are some summaries of what … [Read more...] about Fitzgerald’s Law

Here's a phone number worth memorizing if you live in Chicago: 1-800-LAW-REP-4 It sounds like marketing for some kind of cheesy lawyer, but it's actually an 18-year old program that is supporting our Sixth Amendment right to counsel by filling in some of the gaps surrounding the Supreme Court's decision in Gideon v. Wainwright, which was handed down 50 years ago … [Read more...] about 1-800-LAW-REP-4

For some reason, the folks at Public Citizen sent me a hardcopy of their Health Letter, and at the back they have a feature titled "Outrage of the Month!" This month's example titled "More About Drug Industry Lawlessness" by Sidney M. Wolfe, M.D. is about regulatory violations by pharmaceutical companies, and it's definitely outrageous, but not for the reason he thinks. Eric … [Read more...] about The Outrageous Park Doctrine