Reckless Driving

We've been seeing more reckless driving cases lately. Maybe summer does that. So I added a page on that topic to the firm website. Often the reckless driving charge comes from a high speed alone, which should not be enough for that offense (VTL 1212).We have been getting a fair number of cases with AUO - Aggravated Unlicensed Operation, so I added a page on that too.

Albany DWI Crackdown Coming

Today's Times Union reports there will be a crackdown on DWI for 10 days around July 4th, running from Friday through July 8th.We're already busy, getting a lot of DWI cases in the Albany area recently. Due to what we've been seeing lately, and with the latest changes in DWI laws, I added two pages to our website, one on Aggravated DWI and the other on DWAI.We keep winning DWI cases. Just got a

New Jersey Traffic Courts to enforce a new law

As you can read about in the follwing link, New Jersey assembly has found a new way to make traffic courts busier without accomplishing much. In short, they want a new law requiring new residents to register their vehicles in NJ right away. I'm sure that will solve all New Jersey's problems. Phew!Meanwhile, the busy New Jersey traffic courts, such as Jersey City Municipal Court will take care of

Avvo - Lawsuit over Attorney rating website

There's an interesting lawsuit going on right now for those who are interested in lawyers and the web. A website called Avvo offers ratings of lawyers. As the San Jose Mercury News and the Wall Street Journal blog explain, some lawyers who didn't like their ratings are suing to shut down the website.I'm particularly interested in this because I was thinking about creating a site, or sites, like

Binghamton City Court and the rest of Broome County

I noticed we get very little going on in Binghamton City Court. We do get a lot of speeding tickets from other traffic courts in Broome County, like Kirkwood, Barker, Dickinson, and Windsor.

Coolest website ever!!

Okay, I went a little over the top on the title, but http://media-convert.com/ is a totally cool website.I got an e-mail with an attachment in .wpd format --- an old WordPerfect file. I can't open WordPerfect files, and it's hard to find a way to do it.I went to Media Convert, uploaded the file, and it converted it and allowed me to download the file in the format of my preference. Outstanding!!

Sad Irony - A Good DWI Prosecutor Charged With DWI in Albany

I got a couple e-mail last night or this morning. My friend Joe Meany, an Assistant District Attorney in Albany, was charged with DWI. You can read some of the details (I can't verify the accuracy) in an article in the Times Union.Joe prosecutes, or perhaps I should say used to prosecute, DWI cases in Albany. My regular readers (all three of them :-) ) will be surprised to see me say this about a

Southeast Town Court and Carmel Town Court in Putnam County

In my last post I forgot to mention Southeast Town Court and Carmel Town Court in Putnam County. Our newest attorney advertiser tells me these are the busiest courts there, especially Southeast Town Court.

More traffic courts ...

I noticed that we were missing a few of the top traffic courts in the state, so I added a bunch in the last few days. Some of the more important ones are:Woodbury Town CourtTuxedo Town CourtWallkill Town CourtNewburgh Town CourtThe ball keeps rolling.

Criminal Defense Lawyers and the so-called Innocence Myth

Back in April the Wall Street Journal had a couple opinion pieces about criminal law and criminal defense lawyers. The first stressed the role of defense attorneys in the Duke Lacrosse "rape" case. The second was by a Colorado District Judge, Hon. Morris Hoffman, who discusses what he calls (and the article's title) The Innocence Myth, from 4/26/2007. I'll rip that one apart first.The big quote

An interesting blog

My blog (what you're reading now) is albany-lawyer.blogspot.com. I've been doing it since May 1, 2005. I noticed a different blog on technorati with a strikingly similar address: albanylawyer.blogspot -dot- com. The only difference is the lack of a hyphen. This almost identically-named blog appears to have been created in April of 2007. Hmm.

Bail Abuse: A Good Judicial Decision Attacked

The Times Union reported June 6th about a case in Rensselaer County where Judge Jacon released a defendant on his own recognizance. The defendant, 18 years old and local to the county, was the driver in an accident where a 19-year-old passenger was killed.The victim's mother and some elected officials in the county are upset that no bail was set. Anyone can understand the victim's mother being

Even more on attorney advertising and traffic court

Going back to my recent post on an unethical "attorney" website, I decided to do some more investigation.I faxed a note to the site's fax number saying that I had gotten a ticket in Westchester County for 96 in a 65, and that I would like a quote.I got a fax reply from "Gailia Walters," from "New York Traffic Tickets." The fax further indicates their slogan as "The Traffic Ticket Specialists."Ms.

The New Yellow Pages

As an attorney with a substantial web presence, I frequently get solicited regarding listing on other websites. This ranges from sites like "personalinjurylawyers -dot- com" on what I would call the lower end of the scale (in terms of ethics) to "lawyers -dot- com" and "findlaw -dot- com" on the higher end. I got an e-mail solicitation from lawyers-dot-com today, the text of which is below. What

Criminal Defense: No Guarantees

Prospective clients frequently ask me if I guarantee results. I do not. I get paid for the work that I do, and I do the same quality work for my clients whether we win or lose, and whether we get a good deal or a bad deal.There are lawyers out there who do "guarantee" results. For example, in Syracuse the firm Sommer & Sommer (website is trafficticketdwi -dot- com) says on their website in bold