Dallas Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog

I haven't felt like blogging lately. I've been working on an upcoming DWI trial, and not working by spending time with my wife. As much as I hate the heat, I enjoy the late evenings in the summer. I walk the dogs, swim at our friend's pool, and spend time in the yard pulling weeds. I'm working on that work life balance, and blogging has left the life part of the scale.

One of the problems of the SEO/GET ME CLIENTS NOW!/sell out blog is that it feels like I'm working. I feel like I'm writing press releases, not blog material.

Justia did what I paid them to. They increased my SEOness and told me how to write for maximum google love (hint use geography words in the title of each post). Justia is not the problem, they are a good company, responsive and honest.

I miss IWasTheState because it was natural. The author of IWTS could have a few typos, talk about the debt/healthcare/statism etc. I was free to pollute the blogosphere with knee jerk libertarianism. My blog was personal, then commercial, and I can feel the difference when I'm at the keyboard.

I've gotten more clients, more readers, and maintain a busy practice during a horrible downturn. It's only because I have clients that I can bemoan the lack of meaning in my blogging. To an out of work attorney this sounds frivolous, and it is. Such is the hierarchy of needs. First comes survival, then purpose and joy.

I can't plead entrapment. I made a choice to expand on the internet/abandon the phonebook etc. I became DALLASCRIMINALDEFENSELAWERBLOG.com to reach more clients. It was not a simple URL switch; it was a blogging personality transplant.

The real price of a commercial besides (besides paying Justia, who I endorse) is the joy of writing personally. Lately, I've often felt like I'm back in legal practice at Tech (hell on earth).

It wasn't until I starting Facebooking that I realized how bad my writer's block had become. FB has a limited audience, but that only makes the writing more enjoyable. I can write about microwaving bacon and give out free legal advice (not really, but kind of). Without Facebook I wouldn't know where to share random casual observations online. (I also wouldn't know that every person I went to high school has children, but I digress.)

Conclusion- I don't have one. This is a post about lacking inspiration, remember?
Author's Note- Title of the blog is a great song by Graham Wilkinson.

Today was the monthly Kaufman County Bar meeting. We had an excellent civil law roundup by Crandall, Texas Attorney Keena Greyling. I'm very limited in my civil practice and I don't follow all the latest developments in insurance law etc. That being said, it's easy to predict the trends in Texas civil cases.

Anyone can predict 90% of the decisions that the Texas Supreme Court will make by answering this question- What verdict will help big business? (For the Court of Criminal Appeals just ask- what verdict saves the conviction?)

I remember this trend from my consumer law class at Tech. The neutering of the DTPA (consumer protection act) was in direct correlation to a big business/GOP takeover of the Supreme Court. Funny how that happens.

Another topic was legal outsourcing. Big Law firm has found a way to outsource legal work to India, making a fortune for the partners. Big Law hires Indian attorneys to do research which. American attorneys must "supervise" to ethically pass muster. This is troublesome as Indian lawyers are not usually licensed in Texas.

Big Law clients are prevented a menu of legal fee options. If a Big Law client wants legal work actually done by an attorney in Dallas you pay $XXXXX per hour. If you want Big Law to outsource your case to an Indian lawyer you pay $XX.

It's being presented as no different than a paralegal drafting documents for an attorney to review. Outsourcing lets Big Law cut out the licensed Texas associates and pass those savings onto the consumer. The potential win (if the work is of sufficient quality) for consumers is also a huge red flag to those considering law school. Future Big Law associates of the world, your job has been outsourced. Unless you can work for $20 an hour or open your own law firm, get your MBA.

Temporary Attorney chronicles the flight of legal work to India and the devastating impact of outsourcing on non-partner attorneys. TA should be required reading for anyone applying to law school.

Criminal law has usually proven resistant to economies of scale. One reason is that criminal cases require an actual body in the courtroom. I have to appear in Dallas or Kaufman or Waxahachie. I can't sent my Indian counterpart to speak with the DA or select a jury. An area in which the falling price of research could impact criminal law is appeals. Could an appeal or writ be outsourced to India? We'll know in a few years.

Prosecutors and big firm lawyers have often asked how I started a successful solo practice. This is understandable. When a lawyer gets out of law school she has two things; a law license and a ton of debt. The first rung on the hierarchy of lawyer needs is a job that pays money. After that, meaning, autonomy, lifestyle, more money, etc become important.

Lawyers quickly become frustrated with the limitations offered by their current position and seek greener pastures. Prosecutors get tired of politics, "victims", massive case loads, and stagnant wages. Big firm associates get tired of the legal fiefdom.

My motivation- necessity.The Kaufman DA realized that it was wrong to deprive criminal defendants of my services and quickly corrected the injustice.

I was the Chief Misdemeanor Prosecutor in Kaufman one week, I was Robert S. Guest Attorney at Law the next. Necessity is often the mother of solo practice.

Opening a practice is one thing, actually paying bills, taxes, and the mortgage is another. How did I grow my practice? Here is the Robert Guest guide to a profitable practice in 4 easy steps.

Step One- Broaden your horizons. At first I took cases no one else wanted. I talked to local attorneys and told them I was open for referrals. I bought a subscription to the Texas Bar CLE back catalog. I read hundreds of CLE pages and asked for help from more experienced attorneys. Fortunately, I am now able to focus on relatively few areas of law and refer the rest.

Step Two- Do good work. Having a small practice means meeting client demands, personally and professionaly. Wow your clients, and they will refer future clients. Disappoint your clients, and they will write ugly AVVO reviews about you.

Step Three- Reach new clients. I blogged to reach a wider audience. The law blog seems almost dead now. Back in the good old days a blog would set you apart on the interwebs. Today new blogs are prone to ethically challenged SEO companies and irrelevance.

Step Four, and this is the most important- Elizabeth. Elizabeth Chapman Guest is my wife and the CEO of Guest Law Firm PC. Upon opening my practice I quickly found out I could do legal work but I couldn't run a great law office. Paying bills, getting paid, scheduling, emails, phone calls, appointments, insurance, office supplies, taxes, bar dues, communicating with clerks/coordinators/other lawyers etc were all things I needed help with, and NOW.

Fortunately my soul mate had a BR (before Robbie) career openings banks. She could turn an empty building into a model financial institution over the course of 72 hours. Elizabeth applied this same magic to Guest Law Firm.

Unfortunately for would be future solo practitioners Guest Law Firm has monopolized Elizabeth. Ergo, it may not be possible to open another successful solo law practice.

Tragic post script- Elizabeth was recently diagnosed with carpal tunnel and can't type. Holy shit. You never think about all the things one needs to type in one day. Even texting is difficult. We are using antiquated technology likes pens and paper to communicate. I'm even considering that voodoo speaking/typing software to cope. We visited the doctor today and received a referral and a cortizone shot. Hopefully this can be fixed and our insurance company won't fight us too hard.

Apple needs Steve Jobs, the Mavericks need Mark Cuban, George Bush needed Dick Cheney, and Elizabeth, Guest Law Firm needs you.

Kaufman is unique among Dallas bordering counties. Ellis and Rockwall have similar population numbers but Kaufman demographics are more rural. For example, Ennis (where I live in Ellis County) is larger than any city in Kaufman county. Kaufman is a spread out mix of ranchers, farmers, and smaller communities along with the commuter/family friendly cities of Crandall and Forney. It makes for a unique mix of jurors. It's always difficult to generalize about an entire county's jury pool, but that's what criminal lawyers do.

Locally, Dallas county has the reputation for more defendant friendly/skeptical of government jurors, Collin and Denton are regarded as the more prosecutor oriented jurors. Kaufman is somewhere in between.

Two recent verdicts show Kaufman jurors are open to probation and rehabilitaion, even for reprehesnible offenses. Both cases were open pleas (some call this a slow plea) where the defendant pleads guilty and then both sides present punishment evidence to the jury.

About two months ago a jury decided punishment on a burglary of a habitation. The defendant participated in a home invasion robbery but had no other record. The jury recommended probation. The punishment evidence took a week to consider. That's the longest punishment phase in Kaufman that I'm aware of.

This week the jury came back with a probation reocmmendation on an intoxication manslaugther case, where the defendant was already on DWI probation.

Two probation sentences isn't enough to extrapolate, and each case is unique. However, it shows that if you're willing to ask a Kaufman jury for probation in a felony case (and your defense lawyer is prepared) Kaufman jurors will listen.

I don't have any inside information on the TABC Rainbow club raid. I did notice that the TABC was checking for public intoxication when they swarmed the gay bar in Fort Worth.

I've received a decent number of inquiries from PI defendants who claim to have been abused or unlawfully arrested by law enforcement.

I've had enough experience with criminal law to know that not every tale of police misconduct is accurate. I've also had enough experience with law enforcement to know that PI can be a great cover for malfeasance.

What makes PI so ripe for abuse?

First, it provides a built in defense for the cops- "This guy was drunk". It goes straight to the credibility of the defendant/victim. No one likes drunks, so the police can slander you just by arresting you.

Second, our appellate courts have expanded the definition of what a PI is to cover nearly any situation in which a person is in public and has been drinking. Having no standard allows the police to arrest whoever pisses them off and call it PI.

Third, PI cases rarely have video evidence. Usually the only witnesses are cops, the defendant, and maybe the defendant's friends.

I had a PI case in Fort Worth dismissed recently. A quick thinking friend of the defendant filmed the arrest on his phone. Guess what? No one was intoxicated. The defendant wasn't guilty of PI, but POP. He pissed off the police by refusing to talk with them and was arrested for PI.

What's the law on public intoxication?
From 49.02 Texas Penal Code-

(a) A person commits an offense if the person appears in a public place while intoxicated to the degree that the person may endanger the person or another.

That seems like a fairly high bright line standard that requires a showing of danger to someone. Fortunately for police our pro conviction appellate courts have expanded this law to the point of absurdity.

Here are two cases that highlight the transformation of PI in Texas.

Where defendant was walking down the middle of the street in the middle of night, appeared glassy-eyed and unsteady on his feet, arrest for public intoxication in violation of Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 49.02(a) was proper. Williams v. State, 1997 Tex. App. LEXIS 3314 (Tex. App. Houston 14th Dist. June 26 1997).

This is a standard prosecutors cite often, that if you stumble while walking you are PI. This one decision created a new crime in Texas, stumbling after drinking in public.

It gets even worse...

A person commits the offense of public intoxication if that person appears in a public place while intoxicated to the degree that he may endanger himself or another; the danger need not be immediate, it is sufficient if the accused renders himself or others subject to potential danger. Null v. State, 1997 Tex. App. LEXIS 2646 (Tex. App. Houston 14th Dist. May 15 1997).

Remember, it's not legislating from the bench when you expand the scope of a criminal law beyond recognition, that's strict constructionism. The statute doesn't mention "potential danger", but pro conviction judges took out the magic appellate marker and added it.

Overbroad laws invite abuse and subject the public to arbitrary harassment. If you have a violent, homophobic, or just an asshole of a cop and you give him the arbitrary power to arrest anyone for PI you can expect violent, homophobic and assholic behavior.

The problem is amplified when you add the mutaween zeal of TABC officers. I've never seen grown men so exited to raid teenage keg parties or arrest bartenders. Really, no one cares guys. It's bad enough we subsidize TABC strip club "undercover" operations. TABC's new policy of raiding bars for PI enforcement has disaster written all over it.

Texans need the "old" PI law back, and protection from the moral busybodies at TABC.