Practice Corner: Thoughts on Our Responsibilities as Attorneys

by Daniel DeWoskin
Trial Attorney
www.atlantatrial.com

As a member of the Bar, I often reflect on the different responsibilities I have to my clients, my colleagues, the court, opposing counsel, other parties, and the public. Depending on the case my role and my responsibilities may change, but there is almost always a “little picture” and a “big picture” to consider. A recent experience highlighted this for me in a rather unfortunate situation.

My client was a 19-year-old South American who had overstayed his visa and was no longer legally residing in the United States. He and some friends were caught shoplifting from a Wal-Mart before Thanksgiving, around November 17. I believe the items he was stealing had a value of less than $20. Scared of what would happen to him, my client gave a false name and date of birth, but his lie was revealed within an hour or two. Thus, my client was now charged with not only a misdemeanor shoplifting, but also a felony charge for giving false information.

On top of these charges, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) had placed a hold on my client at the jail, meaning he would only be released into ICE custody so that the deportation process could commence. My client and his family were focused on getting him through the state charges as expeditiously as possible so that he could be deported to his country and put all this behind him.

I got to work quickly and waived preliminary hearings, doing everything I could and making any call I could make to get him before a court where he could plead to the misdemeanor and resolve the case. I had figured that the State would be willing to dismiss the felony charge given the fact that there was no real criminal history to speak of and the facts did not warrant the cost of an extended prosecution.

I figured correctly. When the matter was finally accused, which was sometime in late December, the assistant district attorney was perfectly willing to dismiss the felony and offer a probated sentence for the misdemeanor. We both acknowledged that my client would likely not have the opportunity to complete his sentence as he would not be challenging his deportation and would be taken from the county jail he was in to ICE detention.

This should have been the end of the story. Instead, when my client finally got to court for arraignment on Jan. 6, 2012, the assistant district attorney announced that the felony would be nolle prossed and they would only proceed on the misdemeanor. The Superior Court judge then advised that since this was now only a misdemeanor case, she would not hear the plea and the matter would have to be sent back to State Court. I was crestfallen. I had fielded daily phone calls (yes, daily phone calls) from my client’s concerned mother asking about when he would get to court, what the consequences would be, and how we could make the process move as quickly as possible. Now, we were finally in court and the judge would not hear the plea because, in her words, she did not want to do someone else’s work.

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Raising the Bar: The Value of Video

by W. Blair Meeks
Communication Strategist
Jackson Spalding

I’m beginning to doubt the existence of UFOs. As much as I might believe in life beyond our planet, intelligent life visiting Earth is getting harder to swallow for one simple reason: video. It seems half the people on the planet have a camera or device capable of shooting video in their pockets now. I laughed at a recent “unruly airline passenger” story on the local news. A few years ago, pictures of an incident like this would be extremely rare. On this newscast they used eyewitness video of a drunken guy being escorted off the plane, and in that video I counted at least four other people on the flight who were also shooting the confrontation with their cell phone cameras. With all this access to recording equipment, someone should have captured one of these intergalactic visits, if they’re so common, with a video that stands up to serious scrutiny. And yet no – nothing. So, to me, UFOs are becoming doubtful.

The sheer volume of video being shot, edited and shared is staggering. Forty-eight hours of new video is uploaded to YouTube every single minute! Anyone with a cell phone and a basic computer can produce a moving picture story that can be shared and, through the Internet, can be shared around the world. Great marketing tool, right? Absolutely!

But before (Before? Who am I kidding? Most of you already have!) you jump into the world of video creation, there are many things to consider. Video is a powerful tool and when used wisely can move people to tears, to take action, to start fighting or stop it, to sway opinion, build devoted fans and spark legal or governmental change. The secret, as with most things, is using it wisely.

When most people think about shooting a video about their company or organization the first question they ask is, “who should be in it?” The CEO? The managing partner? Maybe a few department heads and some key supporters? With suggestions like these, in no time you’ll have a long list of talking heads to fill your video to the brim. Great. One of the least compelling images you can have in a video is a talking head. Unless that talking head is a truly compelling speaker or the topic is very interesting, it’s usually boredom city.

The better first question I like to suggest is “what do you want people watching this video to feel?” Excitement? Triumph? Inspiration? Confidence? These questions focus more directly on the type of interaction you want someone to have with you, your firm or organization. Once you establish that, then you can work on the audience you are trying to reach, the stories within your organization that inspire these kinds of emotions and how to best capture these stories on camera. Sure there are internal egos which need to be stroked, but you won’t be doing any favors if you’re showcasing important people in a bad light.

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Litigator’s Playbook: Teach Your Jurors the ‘How’ and ‘Why’ of The Case

by Jeri Kagel, M.Ed., J.D.
Trial Synergy, LLC
www.trialsynergy.com

I recently polled a jury sitting on a criminal case. The jury deliberated and remained deadlocked for more than two days. They were a hung jury until the Allen charge, and then announced a guilty verdict.

Here’s what I learned from jurors:

  1. This jury, like many of the juries we have heard about recently (the Casey Anthony trial being the most publicized and perhaps the most conflicted), were uncomfortable with a variety of things they learned about the defendant – they thought he was guilty of something, yet they believed the prosecution had not “proven their case beyond a reasonable doubt.”
  2.  “Proof beyond a reasonable doubt” meant, to this jury, something different than proving the elements of the crime. It meant conveying a story that taught them everything about the facts they were hearing. For them, it meant a story that did not leave them with unanswered questions or “holes” to fill in.
  3. When these jurors were left having to think “why” or “how” things happened in the facts leading to the charge or in how the story was presented at trial, jurors came up with different “justifiable” reasons. For jurors leaning toward “guilty,” understanding the rationale of those leaning toward “not guilty” strengthened the argument that the prosecution had not met its burden and led to the guilty verdict.

Here are some suggestions that can help regardless of whether you begin the trial having the burden of proof or if the burden shifts to you during trial:

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Are You Getting Enough Sleep?

by Helen Hamlin

One important and often overlooked aspect of obtaining optimal health that we need to explore is sleep. Why is sleep so important anyhow? Do we really know? Why does it elude us?

More than 400 years ago, Shakespeare penned the following:

“…O sleep, O gentle sleep,
Nature’s soft nurse,
How have I frightened thee.”

Yet for the next three-and-a-half centuries, this notion missed the mark entirely. Even today, many of us think of sleep as a luxury, something to do when we have a day off or during a vacation!

The good news is that science and medicine have begun to acknowledge that our health and lives begin to come undone without enough quality sleep. Our society is developing all sorts of sleep disorders and our health is being dangerously affected as a result.

Do you . . .
Wake up tired in the morning?
Need a nap in the afternoon?
Fall asleep watching TV?
Have frequent small accidents at home or large ones on the road?
Have trouble focusing on the job?
Find yourself sleepy after lunch?
Have trouble figuring the correct change from a purchase?
Feel irritable or depressed most of the time?
Feel like you are not getting anything done?
Drink alcohol to get to sleep?
Drink several cups of coffee or energy drinks to stay awake?
Have difficulty falling asleep?
Have difficulty staying asleep?

Answering yes to more than three of these questions indicates you are most likely not getting health restorative sleep.

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