Sprint cell phone service fails

A problem started with my cell phone tonight. Since my cell is very important to my business, a problem with it is very disturbing.Warning: This is going to be a long story, and I'm going to say some negative things about Sprint and their cell phone service, though I will probably be polite.Around 9:45 pm, my cell phone rang. It was a wrong number, a girl trying to reach Matt. She called again.

Criminal Defense and good prosecutors

I'm often critical of prosecutors, so I feel a special duty to comment when I see one who understands.I just had a young client with a minor drug misdemeanor. The typical reduction would be to a lesser drug charge - a violation. But with a young client, you need to be concerned about the prospect for financial aid in the future.Federal law makes anyone with any drug conviction ineligible for

Speeding tickets and insurance

Update (12/08): I've been told that Insurance Law § 2335 has expired. I'm not sure if this will have an effect on insurance rates in NY. In the short term, probably not. In the long run it's hard to say. Original post follows.-----People often ask me how their speeding ticket will affect their insurance rates. There is actually a specific provision of the law, Insurance Law § 2335, that addresses

Lawyers and SEO

I did a post a while back about Lawyers and SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Basically, SEO involves doing things that help a website rank well on search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN. Currently I do well on a variety of keywords on all the search engines. I do surprisingly well on Yahoo and MSN for keywords where I probably shouldn't do that well. For example, if you search Yahoo for

Free legal advice

One of the things you encounter when you start your own law practice is the caller looking for free advice. This happened yesterday, and I probably get a call like this once or twice a week.Someone calls up with what sounds like a simple question. Yesterday's was: "Hi. I got a ticket in Pennsylvania, and I have a New York drivers license. Will the ticket affect me in NY?"I started with a simple

Winter in upstate NY

Home with our young daughter today. Went out to run an errand. On the way out, going downhill, I passed a $50K Lexus that was trying to go uphill. It was half off the road. There's a trend in modern cars, especially luxury cars, for "performance" tires. Typically that means larger wheels and a higher aspect ratio (If your car has 225/60-15 tires, they're 225 mm wide, on 15" wheels, and 60 is the

An evil corporation

Can't believe I haven't blogged about this before. I have a case where my clients were ripped off by their mortgage company. This company, with a history of ripping off their customers, getting sued, and paying very large settlements to federal agencies, is about as evil a company as I've ever seen. It specializes in "subprime lending", what many people call predatory lending.Their modus operandi

Criminal Justice and the media in the Capital Region

I just had a very interesting experience. I was interviewed by Ernie Tetrault for a program that airs on Schenectady public access cable (channel 16) and apparently also on UPN 4.Ernie is a long-time news anchor for WRGB, CBS channel 6. I think he's either retired or semi-retired from WRGB now, but he is still active. He's the kind of guy you just can't help but like.He has become involved, along

Daniel Cady - more coming

I added a few more of Daniel Cady's letters today. Doing his early writing to Peter Smith. The recent entries show some heavy sarcasm, particularly about James Monroe, the NY legislature, etc.

PWT - Practicing (Law) while tired

With all the talk about drunk driving, I thought today's experience is an interesting reflection. Our 11-month old has not been sleeping well. Last night was particularly bad, and I ended up with about 2 hours sleep. But I had an early conference with our area's most feared judge (he was pleasant today), so I had to go to work. The conference went well, but it was very difficult to get work done

DUI Update

In a recent post I discussed two DWI cases I've been handling. In the first, a DWAI with a 0.07 BAC, the ADA has agreed to take this one "out of alcohol". My client will plead to a fairly severe speeding ticket to resolve the case. We had a strong case because my client had passed 4 of 6 field sobriety tests, and the Trooper apparently made some other mistakes with his paperwork.In the second, my

Busy lawyer

Now I'm getting busy. On one day a couple of weeks ago I was in Troy City Court at 8:30 am, Albany City Court (Criminal) at 9:30, had a mediation at 11 am, met a client in the office at 2:30, and went to another traffic court (dwi) at 4 pm. The next day I was in two courts, and the day after that I was in three courts.Tomorrow I'm starting a personal injury trial, and at 6:30 pm, I'm meeting a