Sex offender myth

I had a call today from someone who is considered a sex offender under New York law (and at least one other state). I had a client in a similar situation before.The general public perception of a sex offender is someone who preys on children. The stereotype is a 40-year-old man who has sex with 8-year-old boys.The problem is that state law casts a much wider net. In this case and in another I

Balancing interesting and not-so-interesting work

One of the tough things about being a lawyer is some of the work is, well, boring. Or at least not terribly interesting. I get a lot of speeding ticket cases. I feel good about the work I do for people, helping them get better deals and saving them time in handling things for them. But it's not fascinating work. It's mostly paperwork, or a trip to a local court where you shoot the breeze with

Speeding Tickets

I've gotten a few calls recently from people who discovered the consequences of pleading guilty to speeding tickets. They did not hire lawyers for help on them. Here's what a few of them have experienced:1. One guy received a bill from DMV for $300 (or $100/year for 3 years) as a "driver assessment". This is the first time I've gotten this call, but I suspect it will become common. It's a new law

Good Personal Injury Blog

Noticed a good personal injury blog from Atlanta, Georgia. In addition to the blog, it has a great list of other blogs.

Personal Injury and Insurance Defense

I used to work for Allstate, in-house, as an Insurance Defense lawyer. That means Allstate paid me a salary to work in their office, but my clients were Allstate customers. I noticed a Georgia personal injury blog that discussed the ethical issues for insurance defense lawyers in a couple of recent posts:One and another.I saw these pressures in my work. A good example is when the insurance

Cheap lawyers

A few nights ago I was in Colonie Town Court for a client's speeding ticket. There's a spot where all the defense lawyers wait for their turn to talk to the prosecutors. Three different people came up to us and asked if we had seen a particular lawyer. We hadn't. That lawyer shall remain nameless, but is one of those that might be called cheap lawyers. As lawyers, we get calls from people with

DWI in New York - Out--of-state drivers

I just handled another DWI case with an out-of-state driver. It's a dramatic difference. A New York driver faces so many consequences from getting a DWI charge. Most do not apply to out-of-state drivers.A typical first DWI will get reduced to DWAI. The driver will pay a fine in the neighborhood of $500 or a bit less. They will have to attend a victim impact panel. They will generally have to

Verizon - disputes and collection

Not too long ago I did a post on volume businesses. This morning I got a phone call that tweaked that funny bone.I have a dispute running right now with Verizon about my Yellow Pages advertising bill. In one of the local books they misspelled my name in the ad, and listed the wrong phone number. I sent them a letter before publication telling them to stop, and they published it anyway. After

Supreme Court Marijuana Decision - So much for liberals and conservatives

The US Supreme Court recently made another decision on "medical marijuana" (PDF).California legalized marijuana for medical use. Under federal law (the Controlled Substances Act, or CSA), marijuana remains illegal. The CSA was challenged as violating the Commerce Clause (and also the Necessary and Proper Clause). This is part of a very long dispute on the Court over how much power the federal