November 30, 2011
Criminal defendants, especially those sentenced to long prison terms, sometimes try to attack their convictions and sentences by claiming that their trial lawyers provided ineffective assistance of counsel. The state […]
Read post "Proposed Ethics Opinion: Defense Lawyers May Assist the State in Responding to Claims of Ineffective Assistance"November 29, 2010
Last month, the State Bar issued a proposed ethics opinion regarding contact between prosecutors and defense lawyers, on the one hand, and children who are prosecuting witnesses in criminal cases […]
Read post "Proposed Ethics Opinion about Interviewing Child Witnesses"October 4, 2010
For some time, I’ve been meaning to do a post about attorney-client confidentiality in extreme circumstances. For example, in this Chicago case, defendant X, who was charged with one murder, […]
Read post "Too Much Confidentiality?"July 28, 2010
Rule of Professional Conduct 3.4(b) states that it is improper to “offer an inducement to a witness that is prohibited by law.” Comment 3 to the rule states that “[t]he […]
Read post "Paying Witnesses’ Legal Fees"March 10, 2010
I blogged recently about whether the state is obligated to produce its witnesses’ criminal records in discovery. (Recall that the answer is no, in North Carolina, with some exceptions.) Another […]
Read post "Must the State Inform the Defense When a Witness Goes Missing?"March 2, 2010
Who has the final say about whether to strike a prospective juror – the defendant or his lawyer? That’s the question addressed by the court of appeals today in State […]
Read post "Jury Selection and Attorneys as Agents of Their Clients"