I've been pretty lucky

I was thinking recently about how lucky I've been in my life. I see so many people who have so much and yet complain about their problems, which are usually trivial when compared to the problems of others. Most of us in the US have very good lives compared to certain parts of the rest of the world.How have I been lucky? For starters, I was born into a family that cares about me. I don't just mean

Sad thought - human suffering

I'm not sad at the moment, but I was nearly overwhelmed recently when I thought about the volume of cases I see in the courts. I'm not talking about the amount of cases we have. We're quite busy, but that's a good thing for us.I was just noticing how many people I see in court. In a typical week I might go to a several courts. In a two-day swing I was in Albany City Court - Criminal Part, plus

The face of a DWI defendant

Today's Wall Street Journal has a great article by Michael M. Phillips about a marine dealing with the loss of a fellow soldier who fell on a grenade for him. The article mentions somewhat briefly this marine's arrest in a drunk driving incident and the consequences he faces. If you can access that article, it puts a good human face on a DWI defendant. Our current system dehumanizes defendants in

Another judge with a policy

I just recently did a post criticizing the notion of judges having policies. So I was in Court the other night and had another such encounter.This again is a judge I like, arguably one of my favorites. He has a warm personality, a good sense of humor, respects not only the lawyers but the people who come before him as well. He also has policies, or at least one policy.My client was accused of

Paintball -- something different

I did something different last night. Some friends invited me to play (if that's the right word) paintball. This is where you run around with guns that shoot balls of paint. You shoot at the other team and they shoot at you. Well, mostly what I did was hide behind the inflatable objects that are there for that purpose. Once in a while I'd peek my head and gun out and take a few shots, and then