A lovely day

We just had a lovely day. Our original plan was to meet a New Jersey friend in Bear Mountain State Park. The weather forecast was not good, so we postponed that.But we had promised our older daughter a trip to a park, so ...We went to Thacher Park in the morning. Put the baby (is 16 months still a baby?) in a backpack carrier and walked the Indian Ladder Trail. The baby really seemed to like the

Proposed rules on attorney advertising

You may have read about a set of proposed rules that would affect attorney advertising. I went through them quickly tonight and drafted a letter comment that I'm sending in to the appropriate person. My letter is below ([bracketed material] is not in the letter, but is for readers to understand what the proposed rule is). I would appreciate any comments and I will submit a supplemental letter if

Constitution Schmonstitution

Our illustrious Supreme Court has again decided that that Constitution thingy doesn't mean much. Who need rights anyway. The police are better trained these days and they don't violate people's rights nearly as much as they used to. The case is Hudson v. Michigan.Justice Scalia's reference to better police training is a laugh. Well, maybe the police are better trained in how to violate rights and

Blogging for over a year

I just realized I've been doing this blog for over a year now. My first post was on May 1st, 2005. I missed the birthday. :-)

The first appearance date and suspensions

Somewhere I mentioned that the date on the ticket isn't really a hard date. I was at a seminar yesterday and we were told that the real date is 60 days after that. Once that 60 days runs, the court can (but doesn't have to) contact DMV to initiate a suspension. When DMV issues the suspension notice to you (and hopefully they have your correct address or you have mail forwarding), it gives you

Connecticut and traffic tickets from other states

Connecticut seems like the place for speeders. If I'm getting my information correctly, the holder of a CT drivers license gets no points for speeds under 85 mph if you pay the fine with no fuss. And while it appears that state law authorizes CT DMV to recognize out-of-state tickets, it looks from the regulations like the point system only applies to in-state tickets.Also, the fines look much

Vermont and NY tickets

I was just reading the VT DMV website. Violations from other states do not count for points in Vermont, but the website indicates that some violations from other states may be reported on a VT driving record, and some violations can lead to a suspension of the Vermont drivers license.So if a violation from another state shows up on a VT record, but it doesn't carry points, does that mean it can't

Out-of-state tickets for NY drivers

Once in a while a NY driver will call and ask me about a speeding ticket they got in another state. Generally, the answer is that a ticket in another state won't affect you, as long as you deal with it. If you ignore it or otherwise screw up the process in that state, they might suspend you there and NY would then suspend you here. That's bad.One comment: Tickets in Ontario and Quebec are

Debt collectors

I'm coming to believe there may be no lower profession than the debt collector. Keep in mind I'm not referring to attorneys who do debt collection. I deal with them on a regular basis and they follow the law. I'm referring to the businesses that repeatedly call and harass the supposed debtor.I've got a pro bono client now who repudiated a contract. The contracting company is treating her like a

Lucky morning

Showed up to Court this morning. Client met me there, which is unusual as I always tell my clients they don't have to come -- all they have to do is sign a form and fax it to me but anyway ...The Trooper didn't show up. The Court was already pretty quiet. After about a half-hour, the Judge called me up to the bench. I moved to dismiss. Motion granted.The Troopers usually show, maybe 95% of the

Interview on UPN - This Sunday

I interviewed Peter Christ for Ernie Tetrault's show recently. The interview will air this coming Sunday (11 am, I think) on UPN (Time Warner cable channel 4 in most places around here).Peter is the co-founder of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a group of police officers who support drug policy reform and, as you might guess from the name, feel that prohibition doesn't work.Despite my poor

Consequences of criminal conduct

I've got a couple of clients dealing with the consequences of their actions. One is facing a long prison term. The other will be out soon, but discovered a different kind of problem the other day.His wife and young son visited him. He had talked with both on the phone some in the last couple months, but for some reason the authorities made it nearly impossible for him to call them. He and his

New York speeding tickets and Ontario drivers

I get calls from Ontario and Quebec drivers who get speeding tickets in NY, and I've represented a number of them. Today I came across a page from Ontario's Ministry of Transportation that discusses the Ontario demerit point system and specifically mentions violations from New York (Michigan too).The short story is that if an Ontario driver gets a NY traffic violation, Ontario treats it as if it

Congress?

It's semi-official now. I'm running for Congress again. I ran in 2004 and, considering the small amount of money, we did well. 30% of the vote doesn't sound like much, but the previous 7 challengers each got 25%.The campaign theme then was "Stop Wasting Money Overseas (defending rich countries like France)". We're trying to be more efficient this time, so we're reducing the theme to just three

A beautiful drive

One of the nice things about being a lawyer in the Albany area is the occasional drive somewhere different. Tonight I went to Claverack Town Court one of the traffic courts in Columbia County. Then I went to a meeting in the Town of Schoharie, in Schoharie County.Initially, Google Maps suggested going back to I-90 and then to I-88 and down into Schoharie. But that seemed way out of the way. And I

Relief

I've really been struggling for the last month or so. The move to our new space took a lot of time. While that was going on I had a very high pressure criminal case with a judge who was pushing too fast for my tastes. Fortunately, both for client and myself, the client took a deal with a rather lengthy prison sentence. Fortunate for him because he faced a big risk of a lot more time. Fortunate

Town Court site - completed three NY counties

Thanks to a gung-ho law student intern and some sleeplessness on my part, the town court directory website is on a roll. We've completed three counties now, including courts in Albany County, courts in Schenectady County, and courts in Onondaga County. We now have over 85 courts in 14 counties in the directory, and should have well over 100 by the end of the June.There's a lot of learning along