Wraight.Law

Oh boo hoo. Professions, like lawyers, get criticized - but we suck it up and get on with it. The whining is getting old.

Why some small towns in the US are doing away with their police forces At least 521 U.S. towns and cities with populations of 1,000 to 200,000 disbanded policing between 1972 and 2017. In the past two years, at least 12 small towns have dissolved their departments

Couldn’t agree more. Trump included.

Stop publishing mug shots—even Donald Trump's Mug shots are not taken to humiliate a defendant before they've been convicted. But that's the purpose they widely serve now.

There is also just one former defense attorney sat on the United States Supreme Court. The decisions on who is appointed to the bench has consequences. Representing a government, corporation, or other entity is NOT the same as representing a human being.

Among Colorado judges, former prosecutors outnumber public defenders 2-to-1 The Colorado judiciary is skewed toward former prosecutors, raising questions about the overall fairness of the judicial system, the importance of professional diversity among judges and how much j…

This says all you need to know about “constitutional law.” It’s a self-own about what it’s really happening here - using fancy words and off-the-shelf ‘doctrines’ to reverse engineer outcomes.

South Carolina's new all-male highest court reverses course on abortion, upholding strict 6-week ban South Carolina's new all-male Supreme Court has reversed course on abortion, upholding a ban on most such procedures after just weeks of pregnancy.

New review on Avvo.

💀

That wooden boat is VERY expensive because it’s an antique. Yikes.

Reason you need a defense attorney # 1,743,708.

Police face criticism over central Kansas newspaper raid in which computers, phones seized A small central Kansas police department is facing a firestorm of criticism after it raided the offices of a local newspaper and the home of its publisher and owner.

$35million.

Jury awards family of New York man who died after being beaten by police $35 million in damages The family of a Long Island, New York, man who died after being beaten by police during a 2008 traffic stop has been awarded $35 million in damages by a federal jury.

Proud to have stood with a client in Madawaska District Court - six hours drive from Portland.

Heavens.
Public criminal proceedings are fundamental as a right and basic as a constitutional principle. Did she skip that in law school? This shows that judges are not special, make mistakes, that there is a reason for appellate review, and also why there needs to be extremely careful vetting of those appointed to the bench in the first place.

Trump Judge Aileen Cannon’s Mistakes Just Keep On Piling On See, this is why you want people with actual experience getting those lifetime appointments to the federal bench.

That place is a breakfast temple. It’s desecration!

Lewiston man charged with burglarizing Becky's Diner and Starbucks disturbance The man entered Becky’s Diner and allegedly poured windshield washer fluid onto several chairs, tables, a baby seat booster and several mugs and cups.

This may seem like an obscure lawsuit, but it’s implications were huge. Imagine your loved one’s cells living in perpetuity because they were obtained without permission. Bodily autonomy went out the window - just like being an organ donor without the doctors asking. Consent is paramount. However, the cells are incredibly unusual and for that reason valuable for research.

Thermo Fisher Scientific settles with family of Henrietta Lacks, whose HeLa cells uphold medicine The family of Henrietta Lacks is settling a lawsuit against a biotechnology company it accuses of improperly profiting from her cells.

More professional news. I have been made ‘resource counsel’ for the Maine Commission on Indigent Legal Services on discovery issues such as disclosure of police misconduct to defense counsel. It means I give advice and guidance to other attorneys and get paid for being used in that way. It’s a little variety to the work of criminal defense.

Another day another dismissal of a stupid case. Honestly, the garbage that masquerades as a criminal case is absolutely breath-taking.

Good Timber
by Douglas Malloch

The tree that never had to fight
For sun and sky and air and light,
But stood out in the open plain
And always got its share of rain,
Never became a forest king
But lived and died a scrubby thing.

The man who never had to toil
To gain and farm his patch of soil,
Who never had to win his share
Of sun and sky and light and air,
Never became a manly man
But lived and died as he began.

Good timber does not grow with ease:
The stronger wind, the stronger trees;
The further sky, the greater length;
The more the storm, the more the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
In trees and men good timbers grow.

Where thickest lies the forest growth,
We find the patriarchs of both.
And they hold counsel with the stars
Whose broken branches show the scars
Of many winds and much of strife.
This is the common law of life.

A retainer / fixed fee is paid up front before one second of work is done or it ain’t happening. I’ve heard too many stories of free legal services being given unwillingly.

Steve Bannon Won’t Pay His Lawyers, And He Doesn’t Care How Much It Costs Him Flood the zone with sh*t.

Concur

Yep. Utter waste of time in most cases.

Oral Arguments Are Often Not Needed Since Many Judicial Decisions Are Predetermined Sometimes, it seems like a waste of time to orally argue cases if judges have already decided matters on the papers.

This dog toy is the subject of litigation by Jack Daniel’s about trademark infringement and the case went in JD’s favor at the U.S. Supreme Court. The case isn’t over though. It gets kicked back to a lower court for this insanity to continue.

Said squeaky dog toy (which is very funny and worth looking at) has been ordered from Amazon and will sit in my office on a shelf on display with the opinion about it, which is ludicrous.

That’s stunning

I-80 Wyoming.. the Highway to Heaven

America's Most Thrilling and Dangerous Roads
👉 https://bit.ly/3m68NEM

It’s amazing how quickly the government forgets its veterans when they get into legal trouble because of the mental scars they are left with. We can all say the right thing on Memorial Day - but where’s the action to back it up? Regards, a criminal defense attorney.

Rules for monitoring traffic stops in Maine still not ready.

Traffic Stop Monitoring Rules STILL Not Ready - AG Relying On Law Change Rules on how Maine police departments will monitor the demographics of motorists they stop are still unfinished nearly six months after a law said they should be. The solution? Rely on a change in the law to simply push off the deadline. The Attorney General's office was tasked with preparing the ru...

I was co-counsel with Tina on this case - but I was more than willing to let her and Christian take the limelight. I was a latecomer anyway. All of it was pro bono. This reporting about a three-year case is a rare front row seat to the stress, pressure, discovery violations, stupid rinky-dink cases, bad police work, and inability or unwillingness to reassess a case that this system actively encourages. Oversight is thin, public scrutiny is minimal, and reporters are absent from daily injustices in courtrooms. It’s about time we paid attention.

Charge dismissed against Portland man accused of vandalizing picnic table Christian MilNeil has denied writing an anti-police sentiment on a park table outside a public housing building in June 2020.